Fall of the East
by Exodus9
Summary: Co-written by three authors, Exodus9, Talon the Dragon, and Kauzul. Fall of the East follows the story of the last Eastern Dragons who are trying to find their way in the world, which wants them all dead. Along the way they meet new friends and enemies, and their journey will one day take them to face Alto, the destroyer of Aeon and, if he has his way, the world.
1. Chapter 1

The Fall of the East: Chapter 1

Rem let out a sigh of relief as he spotted the shores of the western continent ahead of him. The feeling of pure exhaustion soon took over as the black scaled dragon's wings felt like they were about to snap off. going into a steep descent, the male fire dragon dove towards the shore at an extreme rate before spreading his wings once more to slow down a bit and rolled onto his back, holding the injured you dragon in his paws tightly so that his body took the brunt of the fall. As they slammed into the ground, Rem grunted as he slid on his back in the sand, coming to a slow stop soon after. Releasing the young dragon, He coughed and rolled onto his side and looked to him with half closed eyes. "We..." he broke into a fit of coughs before speaking again.

"We made it." he sighed and closed his eyes.

Crow didn't look at Rem and merely nodded, before sitting down in the sand and wrapping his dark, ragged wings around him, his thin tail curling around his feet as he did so. "I don't like the water..." he said quietly, his pale grey eyes staring bleakly back across the sea. "Do you suppose...the village is still burning?" he almost whispered, and although they were far away from their home, Crow almost believed he could see smoke rising in the distance. His breath shuddered as he thought of what might have occurred if Rem hadn't helped him, everyone had been screaming, fire and lightning had torn apart the village that he had been his home. And the smell of fear, it had been so rich in the air, unlike anything Crow had ever felt before, and he shuddered at the memory. 'Why…why did you help me? Don't you have your own family to look after?" he asked, his pale eyes still fixed on the sea.

The black scaled dragon rolled and placed his head on his paws, looking out over the sea as well. "Not anymore." he replied quietly, a few tears falling from the edges of his emerald green eyes. "They... were both killed by the general and Alto. When I found you near the shore, I knew that, even though this may sound weird, but you were the only thing that I had left in my life. We were both shunned by the other dragons for being different and stuck through it together. Just like now, we have to persevere together through this. Somewhere inland Warfang lies, and I think that is the only safe place for us right now." said Rem with a long sigh. "First we need shelter, food and wood for a fire... at least that is what my father said in my survival class." said the fire dragon as he tried to stand, but fell, his chin smacking against the ground. It took him a few attempts to stand but when he did, he felt like he could forever. Looking around, he spotted a sheltered cave, hidden by some rather large rocks. Looking inside, he sniffed and blew a small fire ball. Seeing and smelling nothing, he called out that he found a cave and entered.

Crow didn't react, but his pale eyes moved to look at Rem. "I'm sorry." he said quietly. He frowned slightly at the site of the Fire Dragon's tears and opened his mouth as if to say something, but nothing came, instead he just nodded at the older dragon's words and got back up, his wings still clinging to his sides tightly and headed down the beach as Rem looked for shelter. He returned by the cave carrying a few logs, bleached white from the salty water. "You don't need to worry about your survival lessons, as long as you have me around, you'll be alright." he said with a slight grin, and produced a few fish from under his wing. They were rather rotten and covered in grime, but Crow didn't pay it any mind and started eating the smaller of the two.

As Crow entered, Rem turned around and gave him a thankful nod as he dropped the fire wood. Seeing the condition of the fish however, that was a different story. Leaning down, the large fire dragon sniffed the rotting fish and almost passed out from the stench. "How did you ever survive on eating this stuff Chronos?" asked the male as he picked the fish up by its tail and cooked it with his fire breath for a few moments before arranging the firewood and setting it alight. Turning his large neck, Rem looked on his back to see the burn from the electricity from the general and sighed. _"That was way to close"_ thought the male black dragon and he curled up closer to the fire, now depleted of his magical energy. His stomach growled vigorously but he chose to ignore it. He could hunt for the two in the morning then they could fly to Warfang and be safe.

Crow froze when Rem said his real name; he had almost forgotten that he knew it, for it was something that he had shared with no-one. He felt that his true name was a treasure, one that should only be shared with those worthy of it, and Rem had fallen into that category, everyone else just called him 'the crow' because of his status as a beggar and his odd affinity for the creatures. He missed his birds already, but they had all fled the village at the sight of the fire, they had known that evil forces were on the move. As he continued to stare into the colourful flames of the fire, Crow suddenly realised he had completely forgotten to answer Rem's question, and he shrugged "You get used to it, trust me, I've had worse." he said, lying down on the rough stone of the cave floor, and his thoughts started to wander again, as they always did before he slept. He liked the name Crow, even if it wasn't his true name, but then, it was his only treasure, the only thing he ever really owned. Sometimes, he imagined himself as the son of a Lord or even a King, and he would be a great warrior, and everyone would call him The Crow, the greatest warrior that ever lived. He smiled and rolled over, looking up towards the ceiling, perhaps in Warfang, he might get a chance to fulfill his dreams.

Rem awoke the next morning to see the sun slowly rising on the horizon. Looking over, the black dragon noticed that Crow was still asleep, curled up close to the warm coals of the extinguished fire from the night before. Stepping outside, the older male spread his wings and took to the air, silently flying above the forest nearby. Scenting a deer, the male smiled and landed quietly in a tree, stalking the unsuspecting buck as he strolled through the trees. When it was under him, Rem leapt down, only to hit the solid ground. Rem slowly picked himself off of the ground and shook his now sore body. To his left sat a dragoness with gleaming sky blue scales and white wing membranes and horns. "What the hell!" yelled the black scaled dragon as he stormed over. "That was so my kill!" In the confusion, the female dragon stumbled back and started to shake slightly. "I... I am sorry. I did not know you were here..." he said quietly. Calming down at her fear, Rem helped her up and sighed. "I should be the one apologizing. It is just I haven't ate a decent meal in days." admitted the black fire dragon as he sat down. The dragoness sat as well and smiled. "We could share it. I'm Frost by the way." she offered. Smiling, Rem nodded and picked it up onto his back and waved for her to follow him to his cave. As they arrived, Rem placed the heavy buck down and slightly nudged Crow awake. "Breakfast is ready." he said quietly as he sat back down beside Frost.

Crow had been dreaming, something that was uncommon for him, particularly when he had just been through something so traumatic, but the young dragon's mind was full of hope for what would come in the city, and his dreams of glory were welcome in place of the nightmares that tormented him in the darkest of nights. His pale eyes opened and he instantly spotted the stranger. He didn't react negatively, although by nature he was rather untrusting of others, and simply stared at her, his pale eyes boring into her as he tried to figure out where she came from. Without taking his eyes off her, he accepted the piece of deer Rem offered him and greedily scarfed it down, a meal like this was very rare for him, but he treated it no differently than the rotting fish from the night before.

Smiling at the little black dragon, Frost turned to Rem and smiled. "He is so cute!" she exclaimed quietly. "Is he your little brother?" she asked in a curious tone. Rem looked up at the female and shook his head. "No, Crow here is my closest friend. We literally bumped into each other one day and became friends soon after. Oh and I forgot to tell you my name. I am Rem." he said with a smile as he took another bite. "Oh Crow, this is Frost, she... helped me catch the deer." said Rem as he turned his head to the entrance of the cave after feeling eyes on him. The older black dragon nearly stumbled back as the large for of an elder Ice dragon stood at the mouth. "I swear, young Frost. You are most certainly one of my most... adventurous stu- who are these to may I ask?" said the fire dragon in a slightly pompous tone as he looked at the two black dragons. Rem instinctively moved and stood over Crow while the elder spoke. The elder's eyes grew wide as he noticed the silver insignias that every dragon was born with on the eastern continent and stepped forward curiously. "You two are from the east... what brings your clan here may I ask." he asked in a slightly hostile tone, causing Rem to drop into a defensive stance. Growling, Rem flared his wings and crouched even lower over Crow to hide I'm from view. "We are here because our village was attacked and destroyed. We flew across the sea non-stop to escape the evil lord known as Alto. Both of us have no family or home left and were seeking out the capital city, Warfang, for shelter and new lives." explained Rem in a slightly cold tone. The dragons of the east and west continents never seemed to get along after the wars long before and the tension was still there clearly. Frost looked and saw the markings for the first time. Remembering how nice he was though, Frost walked up to Rem and faced the elder with pleading eyes. "Master Cyril, could these to take up residence and become students with the others and I?" she asked respectfully. After a few moments of careful consideration, the elder known as Cyril smiled and nodded, waving with his wing for Rem and Crow to follow him.

"I'm not cute!" said Crow indignantly at the Frost Dragoness, and he flared his ragged wings in anger. She laughed quietly at his reaction and that only made him more agitated. "Okay then, what are you if not adorable?" she asked in a teasing tone. "I'm going to be the greatest warrior that ever lived! And don't you forget-" he broke off as the three of them spotted the Elder Dragons, and Crow fell silent, realizing the gravity of the situation once Rem stood over him protectively. The young dragon quickly retreated into the shadows, becoming almost invisible to the naked eye. Crow watched the two older dragons fearfully, for they did not seem to trust him or Rem, the young dragon frowned at the thought that they might hurt him, and stepped forward slightly, ready to help his friend fight if need be. Although Crow always dreamed to be a warrior, it was actually quite impossible for him, for his body was physically weak after years of starving and scavenging rotten food. Likewise, he was slightly relived when the Elders accepted Frosts plea. After waiting for Rem to take the lead, Crow followed closely behind, sticking close to the larger dragons shadow, and not meeting the eyes of the Elder. It wasn't long before they had reached the outskirts of the city, and Crow blinked in amazement, it was huge! Much larger than the village he had grown up with, and teaming with life. Shops were crowded with goods and the streets were made of cobbled stone rather than dirt. In the alleyways between the houses, Crow could see a bunch of vagabonds, young dragons like him who also didn't have a home. They stared at him from out of the shadows with hollow eyes, and Crow looked away. "So...where will we live?" he asked Rem, looking around at all the giant buildings in the distance.

As Rem was about to answer, Frost looked at him and smiled before crouching down to the level of the small dragon. "We are heading to the Warfang Academy! It is the largest, most... advanced building in the city. The rooms are huge and you get to have a roommate!" said the ice dragoness with a wide smile, trying to cheer up the young dragon. "I know you two will like It." she said to both Rem and Crow as she turned back to look where the group was being led by Cyril. Rem looked back and forth wearily and subconsciously pulled Crow closer to him as the dragons shopping and selling turned with disdainful glares as the eastern dragons walked through the streets, some even shouting insults such as "Low lives!", "Eastern scum!" and "Go back to the slums of the east!" Snarling and gnashing his teeth a few comments more personal to him, Rem hurried himself and Crow up beside Cyril and asked, "Cyril, can we fly to this academy? I really do not feel comfortable walking around in these streets." With a slight nod, the Ice Guardian spread his massive wings and took to the skies. Grabbing Crow, Rem took to the air as well and they were followed by Frost.

"I can fly you know." muttered Crow as he was snagged off the ground and hauled towards the academy, but he didn't struggle. It was nice, to have someone looking out for him, for it was a luxury he had never experienced before. Rem had always been his friend back in the village, but being a beggar, they didn't always run in the same circles. Now, the young dragon gasped in awe as they flew over the city, from above, he could see all of the spiraling towers and massive structures that shot into the sky as they headed deeper into the city. Finally they arrived at the Academy, the giant building seemed to tower over the small dragon, and he quavered in fear as he spotted other unfamiliar dragons, the place was teaming with them and Crow clung to Rem's arm, his pale grey eyes staring around fearfully.

As the group arrived at the massive building, Rem could not help but let his jaw drop some at the pure size and architectural magnificence. The mahogany coloured bricks that lined the walls stood intimidatingly high above the black scaled dragon and he felt as if it could come alive at any moment and eat him up like a piece of dust. To their left, a group of dragons entered the main courtyard and began to study for who knows what. To their right a couple electricity dragons were joking around as they would place their yellow paws on each other and shock their friends. Rem was shaken from his thoughts as he felt the smaller black dragon cling to his front leg and smiled. "Don't worry Crow. If they try to hurt you, they will have to deal with me." he said in a quiet, calm tone. "If you want, you can ride on my back like in the village." offered the older of the two black dragons as they neared the entrance into the main building of the academy, its large double doors swinging open as a few guards moved past the group.

Crow instantly let go of Rem "I'm not afraid! I'll walk." he said, striding forward after the Guardian despite his misgivings about the place. Just the knowledge that Rem was looking out for him was enough for Crow to keep walking. He felt out of place, which was normal for him but here it felt even more so, Crow must be one of the youngest students here, for he didn't see anyone his age. The Guardian seemed to read his thoughts and looked down at the young dragon. "Although it is...rare to have dragons studying with us at your age, it is not uncommon, we will make sure you are ready for the curriculum that is assigned to you." he said kindly as the entered the main chamber. A few of the other guardians were standing around, talking to students and each other quietly in the massive room, their whispering voices seemed to echo off the wall, but as Rem and Crow entered the room, their voices fell silent.

Rem let out a light chuckle at the young dragon's brave antics as he followed after the large guardian of ice. As they entered the room, Rem felt himself stick closer to the side of the elder dragon, praying that he did not get assaulted just for being an eastern dragon. A few students started to move towards the small group and Rem reached out for his friend, who he saw more as a little brother, and pulled him closer. It was good to show confidence but now was not the time. The large elder stopped a few meters from the other elders as he spoke. "While I was out training my apprentice, we came upon these two young, eastern dragons." he said to the other elders. Another elder, this one being of the air element piped up aggressively. We should just hang the two of them. They will cause nothing but trouble here!" Rem recoiled at the comment and to his horror, some of the other elders nodded in agreement with the old fire dragon. One dragon in particular, a large earth dragon stepped forward and caught everybody's attention. "There will be no such harm done to these young ones, Infernus! Indeed the marks on their shoulders signal them as eastern dragons, but they are also young. They most like it do not even know about the history of our race. They will stay here. I have a room already set up for them. If any of you order some private dragon to, or harm them yourself, you will be the one that is hanged!" he roared before motioning for Rem and Crow to follow. As they walked through a hall, a single door at the end of the hall opened into a massive apartment with balcony and all. "You two will stay here for now on. It is away from the rest of the city, but attached to the academy. Classes begin with combat at noon. Be up and in the main arena a few hallways down by then and do not be late." With that he left the two to lounge around. Rem did not feel like inspecting at the moment and just lazed on the couch looking out at the afternoon sky through the balcony opening.

As the other dragons glared and snarled at the two, Crow stuck close to Rem, his former confidence dwindling, only to be replaced by fear, an emotion he despised. His horror was only intensified when the elders themselves suggested that he and Rem be hanged, and Crow tried to hold back a snarl as he glared at the older dragons. He knew that to attack them was futile, but if they tried to hurt him, or Rem, he would do whatever he could to hurt them. While the other dragons argued amongst themselves, one of the Guardians of black scales started to stare at Crow in shock. After a moment, the youth and the elder locked eyes, and Crow blinked in surprise. Something seemed, familiar about this dragon, but he couldn't figure what it was. As he was escorted away, he kept glancing back at the guardian, who's pale eyes followed him out of the main chamber. "Who-who was that?" he asked the earth dragon timidly, but the Guardian left without another word, and Crow's wings fell in defeat. With a sigh, he hoped up on the couch beside Rem and curled his tail around his feet. "They really do hate us here, don't they? I thought that the Guardians would all be like the Ice Dragon...but I guess I was wrong." he said, a look of deep sadness over his face.

Suddenly, a knock sounded at the door, and Crow glanced over at Rem before he got up and opened it. Standing outside, was the dark guardian. He stood regally before the young dragon, his cold eyes as pale as ice, while his cheeks harboured a sunken look, and his scales shone with a dull, black parlour. "W-what do you want?" asked Crow, and the guardian looked at him to Rem. "I would like to speak with you, now." he said, looking back to the young dragon. Crows eyes looked down "Well…I…um..." The older dragon reached forward and pulled Crow forward. "It was not a suggestion, it was an order." he said coldly and the young dragon cried out in surprise as he was carted down the hallway. "Rem! Let go of me! I don't want to go with you!" he snapped and struggled against the older dragons iron grip.

Rem looked over to the younger black dragon and shook his head before curling up and placing his head on his paws. "What else would you expect? The western and eastern dragons were in a huge, war, many died, and they still have hard feelings about it. Of course they are going to want to kill us Crow. I hate to sound discouraging, what they do not know is that dad taught me the past of our races-" he was cut off as the knock sounded. Rem stood a few meters behind the younger dragon and listened to the conversation intently. "Crow!" yelled Rem as he raced after the fear dragon. He was not going to let his friend be injured because of their nationality. But as the male black dragon leapt after the guardian, he turned around and loosed a sonic screech, blasting the black dragon back through the door of the room and out of sight. Rem tried to stand but the darkness of unconsciousness took over.

"REM!" screamed Crow as he rushed over to his fallen friend. The dorm was suddenly crowded with students as they all tried to figure out what happened. "What's going on? Was that some sort of Fury? Did the Eastern Dragon do it? Did that young dragon do it? No! It was the unconscious one, the Eastern filth!" Shouted the students and one came forward, breathing heavily as they pulled some debris out of a wound in their side. They pointed dramatically at Rem as the rest of the students stood behind him "I saw it all, that Eastern Dragon attacked one of our Guardians!" he shouted and the rest of the dragons snarled and hissed in fury. Crow trembled at the sight of their rage but stood protectively in front of Rem "Stay away from him!" he snarled, his cold eyes burning. The other dragons advanced, hissing and lighting up their elemental powers. "Out of our way, Eastern scum! This one will hang for what he has done!" another shouted. "I SAID GET AWAY!" screamed Crow, and suddenly the room went dark. Dragons stumbled around blindly and started screaming in terror, a few fell to the ground and began clawing at their scales "Get them off, get them OFF!" and all the while Crow's eyes glowed white as he glared at the dragons in pure anger. "I won't let you hurt us!" he snarled, but suddenly, the darkness disappeared, and the Guardian was standing beside Crow with his hand on his shoulder. The young dragon looked up in surprise, and blinked as he saw what was going on around him. The students seemed to snap out of their daze and got back up, but stayed away from Crow and Rem. "And that...is why I wanted to talk to you, young one." sighed the Guardian, his paw still clasped firmly on Crows shoulder. "Guardian Phobius, we thought you were..." gasped one on the students as they bowed respectfully before him. "I'm fine." said the Elder, brushing off some of the rubble off his scales. "Get this one to the Healing Ward, I need to have a chat with this young one here." he said, and the students quickly took Rem away, and cleared out the room, leaving the Elder and the young dragon alone. Phobius closed the door, which was slightly hanging off its hinges and turned around. "Wait, I want to go with Rem! I have to know he's okay!" insisted Crow, who tried to get around the guardian, but the Elder stopped him. "No, I must speak with you. It is very clear to me, from those displays of power, that neither of you are fully aware of your hidden potentials." said the Elder smoothly, and Crow looked at him in confusion. "What...do you mean?" Phobius motioned to the balcony, and Crow reluctantly followed after him. "I assume...that you are unaware that you are a Fear Dragon?" he asked as he looked out across the city. "A…what?" asked Crow in confusion. Phobius smiled slightly "Fear Dragons are a dying breed, many of us were whipped out in the purges, but a few of us..." he looked over at Crow "have survived." The young dragon grasped onto the stone railing. "I don't understand...I don't have any elemental power, I never did." "Never? Haven't you always been plagued by nightmares, even in your waking hours, haunted by such horrors that seem to lurk near every dragon, follow them around and torment you unceasingly? Don't tell me other dragons always thought you were different…strange...un-natural?" asked the Elder as he continued to look out. Crow backed away from him slightly, his eyes widening in shock. "How do you know me?" he whispered, for everything he had said was true. "Because it has been the same for me, every day of my life. Do you know why they purged our kind, all those years ago?" Crow shook his head "I...didn't even know there was a purge..." he placed his hand over his chest "I…didn't even know what I was. I'm...nothing more than a beggar." he said, ashamed. The Elders gaze softened and he looked over towards the young dragon. "What is your name?" he asked quietly. "...Chronos...but in the village they called me 'the crow'." Phobius nodded approvingly "That's a good name, honourable to our legacy." and Crow looked up with a slight smile. "So…why did they...purge…us?" he asked, curious, and Phobius's smile faded. "They feared us, it was a simple as that, no dragon could stand the powers we hold, the ability to show dragons their greatest fears, and make them suffer for it...they tried to wipe us out, convinced we were un-natural elementals, sent from Hell itself to destroy the dragons of this world. With all the elements pitted against us, our kind never stood a chance. A few of us managed to escape and hide, like myself, but the rest of us..." he sighed and hung his head. "Why are you telling me this? I mean...I am grateful to know it, but how did you know what I was?" asked Crow and Phobius looked over to him once more. "I'm telling you this because you are the first Fear Dragon I have seen since the purge. And I knew what you were the moment I saw you, just as you recognized me for what I was." he said simply, and Crow nodded slightly. "Come, we should go and see your friend now." he said quietly and left the room. "Oh, and before I forget. I would like it if you would take a private class with me, so that I can train you in your element. You are young, and direction in this power is very important during your growing years." he said seriously. Crow padded quietly beside him, and nodded as they entered the Healing Ward.


	2. Chapter 2

Fall of the East: Chapter 2

Rem's world spun as he lay in the medical bed. There was some tube in his throat helping him breath and there was a few needles placed in between his scales. The young fire dragon did not know where he was, what had happened or who anyone was around him. The medics seemed to move in blurs as they worked on the young black dragon. He would occasionally black out once again as the dizziness became too great for him to bear. He then watched as a medic ran up to the large dark dragon at the doorway before slowly slipping into unconsciousness once more, Lying on his back with his wings hanging limply off of the bed, his front limbs doing the same while the back were spread as wide as they could go, gravity pulling them.

"Rem!" gasped Crow as he ran over to him, skidding to a halt beside his friends side. "What happened to him?" he demanded from one of the medical dragons. The blinked in surprise that such a young dragon could exhibit such force in their speech but they quickly recovered their composure as Phobius walked up beside him. "Well...it seems that took quite a lot of damage in that...accident" they glanced over to the guardian "that was caused earlier. We've given him some stimulants and are helping him breath, but it could take a while-Hey! What do you think you're doing?" the shouted, for Crow had just grabbed Rem by the neck and started wringing him back and forth. "Hey do you hear me! WAKE UP!" shouted the young dragon before he was pulled back by Phobius. "I'm not sure that is the best way to go about it, young Chronos." said the guardian calmly as Crow dangled in the air, waving his arms around like a lunatic. "Let me go! And now one is allowed to call me that unless I give them permission!" he huffed, crossing his arms in defeat as he hung above the ground. The medical dragon glared at him as they carefully set Rem back onto the bed. "Honestly, why we are giving this Eastern dragon so much attention, I'll never know." they muttered before rushing off, Crow glaring at them evilly.

"Come, we should let him rest. It's going to be a while before he wakes up." said Phobius, with a slight look of guilt flashing across his face. Crow looked at Rem mournfully, his front paws twisting together as he gazed at his friends unconscious face. "I don't feel comfortable leaving him alone...these dragon's cannot be trusted, they tried to kill him, they want us dead." he muttered, almost to himself, but as Phobius placed his paw on the young dragons shoulder, Crow sighed and followed the Guardian out of the ward. "Come. You can visit him later. For now, why don't I show you around the academy?" offered the Elder, and Crow smiled slightly. "Okay." he said and the Elder smiled warmly, he was pleased to finally see another of his kind, and the young dragon reminded him so much of his son...Phobius looked away for a moment and Crow blinked in confusion. "Is something wrong?" he asked as the two came to a halt.

"Of course not, over here, is the central chamber, it is where the Guardians stay during the day to teach." he said quietly as the re-entered the main hall. The other Elders looked over at the pair with cold glances, and Phobius hurried Crow along. "I hear you attacked one of the Easterners? And now you've taken the younger one under your wing?" scoffed one "No doubt looking to replace his long lost son!" laughed another and the group smirked evilly, as Phobius glared at them in fury. "Come along, Crow, it is not safe to be around these old fools." he muttered. "What was that Phobius?" snapped one of the elders and they walked over to him. The Fear dragon stepped in front of Crow, whose eyes were wide with fear. "What if I snapped that puny dragons little neck? Then what would you have to say about us?" they hissed. Phobius growled and snapped his jaws "Coward! He is but a child, you wouldn't dare lay a hand on youngling of your own kind!" he spat, but the other simply smiled wickedly.

"Ohhhhh, so it's a fear dragon now is it?" they laughed "No wonder you've taken favour with it!" they smirked, and with a nod, one of their students grabbed at Crow, pulling him away. Crow screamed in fear and reached out towards the dark Elder "Phobius! Phobius!" he cried as the student pinned the young dragon to the ground. "Crow!" shouted the Guardian but the Elder blocked his path, laughing as he did so. "You're all the same, Easterlings, Fear Dragons, you are all beneath us." they snarled. "You would dare address a Guardian in such a fashion?" spat Phobius as he tried to push past him, and the Elder glared "You are in no higher position than I am, Phobius!" they hissed. Suddenly, a voice rang out across the chamber; "What is going on here?" shouted the Earth Guardian as they entered the hall. And the Elder looked over in surprise and backed away, motioning for the student to let Crow go, the young dragon running over towards the Fear Guardian, who pulled Crow towards him protectively. "Nothing..." said the Elder, and quickly left the room, his students following behind him.

The Earth Dragon walked over towards Phobius "Trouble with the others?" he asked quietly, looking down at Crow with pity. The youngling grasped onto Phobius's arm tightly, tears brimming in his eyes. "Yes, I fear that keeping these two alive will be a more trying task than we previously thought." muttered the Fear Dragon, and he led Crow back out into the hall and towards his room. "You should stay out of sight for a few days, just remain in your dorm during the day, I will come and visit you and help you begin your training personally, alright?" he said softly. Crow nodded, and whipped the tears out of his eyes. "I hate...being afraid." he said quietly and Phobius stopped for a moment, and lowered his head so that it was level with the young dragons. "Now listen to me, I will not let any harm come to you, or your friend, I swear to protect you." he said firmly and Crow looked up at him, his pale eyes misty with sorrow. "Why are you helping me? Why don't you hate me like everyone else?" he asked quietly, but the Guardian remained silent, and opened the door, escorting Crow inside, before shutting it, and leaving the young dragon utterly alone.

Rem remained in his unconscious state for the next few days, only waking in brief moments, looking around and then quickly falling back asleep. The doctors figured that the young dragon would need surgery to heal some internal bleeding that he had suffered from the powerful sound wave. When he awoke again, with a new scar on his stomach, there was some deer meat and some water beside him with a note from Frost apologizing for everything that happened. As he rolled out of the bed, he looked around and could not find his friend. Confused, Rem walked out of the ward and down the hall. In his thoughts, the male did not see the elder fire dragon walking out of the room and crashed into him. "Watch where you are going, scum!" snarled the elder, causing Rem to flare his wings in defense as the fire dragon shoved him over.

"Infernus!" called out a voice as Phobius and Crow rounded a corner. The elder Fire Dragon snapped his head around as the other Guardian came into view. "Well, well, well. If it isn't the protector of all Easterlings and his faithful bird. I hear they called you a crow, youngling, a fitting name...for a beggar!" he said with a laugh. "We've been through this before many times over now, Infernus. You would do well to stand down." said Phobius calmly as Crow looked from Rem back to the floor. He wanted more than anything to run over to his friend and help him to his feet, but Infernus and his students had attacked him more than once over the past few days, and he was reluctant to leave his Guardians side. The Fire Dragon, on the other hand growled and bared his fangs menacingly. "I don't take orders from filth like you! I've put up with you being one of us for long enough, you should have perished in the purge years ago, along with your beloved fami-ARGH!" shouted Infernus, for Phobius had just leaped forward and slammed into the Fire Guardian, sending him spiraling away from Rem and crashing into the far end of the hall.

The Fear Dragon spread his wings menacingly, and the air seemed to quaver around him as he prepared a scream attack. "Give me a reason, Infernus. Give me one reason and I swear I'll do it." he hissed. The Fire Dragon picked himself off the floor and whipped away a bit of blood that ran down his chin. "Another time then." he snarled and slunk away. The air returned to its normal state and Phobius sighed in relief, letting his wings fall back into place at his side as Crow ran forward to help Rem to his feet. "I'm so glad you're awake! The healers were sure you wouldn't be getting up for at least another day!" he said with a smile. Phobius grinned slightly at Rem and nodded at Crows words "Rem has hardly left your side, when I've been able to get him out of the hospital wing we've been training, but during those times he will speak of nothing but you." he said with a sigh as they started walking back towards the dormitory. "I'm sorry, by the way, about that...incident." he added "I should have made it clear that I did not mean to harm either of you, but I felt that Chronos" "Crow" chimed in the younger dragon "and I needed to talk immediately, and for good reason." continued the Guardian as if Crow hadn't said a word. "That's right; Phobius told me that I'm a Fear Dragon, like him. He's been helping me harness my powers...but it's not easy." said Crow as they entered the room. The door had since been replaced and the room was now re-arranged to Crows liking. It was also extremely messy.

"Sorry." said the young dragon as he frantically ran about clearing off the couch so that the Guardian and Rem could sit down. "I'm not used to living...inside." he said with a slight laugh, but it was easy enough to tell he was rather embarrassed. "I told you, you should have cleaned this place earlier." said the Guardian with a sigh, but he did not sit down. "You're not staying?" asked Crow his face falling, for he had hoped that the Guardian might stay for a while, as he sometimes did after training. Phobius had been a great comfort to the young dragon during his first years at the academy, and he had become rather attached to him. "No, you and Rem should have some time to catch up, I will see you for your lesson tomorrow." he said and shut the door behind him. Crow sighed and crawled onto his bed, which was covered in a heap of blankets and all sorts of oddities the young Fear Dragon had nagged from around the school. "My collection!" he said proudly, showing Rem a few of the oddities that lay at the bottom of his bed. They ranged from a silver fork to a wooden top. "You wouldn't believe this place, it's like nothing I've ever known!" exclaimed Crow as leapt up and rushed over towards the balcony. "It's been kinda lonely without you around, but Phobius has been really nice, and the food here is great! I don't usually go to the dining hall, but what the Guardian brings me is really good." he said warmly. The young dragon was acting very energetic, something that was rather out of character Crow, who usually acted cold, and indifferent towards life.

Rem laughed a bit as he watched the young dragon bounce off of the walls of the apartment before he started to clean the main sitting area. He organized the items that were his and that were Crow's and placed them in both of their rooms accordingly. When he was satisfied with the cleanliness, the fire dragon sat down on the pillow that he had placed on the balcony and looked out over the city. Down below he could see the many races that lived in the city such as bipedal cheetahs and moles, as well as a few foxes and wolves all conversing and purchasing items in the markets. A knock on the door was heard behind him and with a sigh, Rem walked over and opened it. On the other side stood Infernus, the fire guardian with a wry smile. "Here is the work you missed in classes, runt." growled the fire guardian before dropping some textbooks and papers on the young dragon. In his anger, Rem blew smoke out of his nose to calm his fury and this caught the elder off guard. "You... you're a..." before the elder could finish, Rem slammed the door in his face and collected the papers and books before sitting on the couch. "Wow..." he said. "I have learned all of this from dad already." he chuckled.

Crow sat down beside him and looked over the papers Rem held in his hands, picking up a spare piece of parchment, he held it close to his eyes, his face frowning as he tried to make out the letters. After a moment he sighed and let the paper drop in frustration. "I don't even know what it says. You're lucky that you already know this, Rem, I do not think my time here will be so easy." he said with a sigh and leant back against the back of the couch and up towards the ceiling. "I can remember what the teachers tell me, but there is so much to learn! What Phobius teaches me is a lot easier, it doesn't require words." he added and got to his feet. "Awww, Rem! You've disorganized everything! Where did I put that...ah-ha! See?" he held up a slightly ripped piece of parchment, which was covered in drawings of runes and poses. "No letters!"

Rem looked at the runes with a confused stare. He had seen them before in one of his lessons by did not remember what they meant or what they were used for. With a long sigh, the black scaled dragon pulled out his writing utensils and began to work on his missing assignments. It took the young dragon about one hour to actually finish it all, but when he was done, he sighed and shook his paw, resting on the couch. When he was finished, Rem walked over to the kitchen area and smiled a bit as he turned around. "Hey Crow, remember those pies I used to always make?" he asked with a wide smile. A few moments later the fire dragon heated up an object out of view from the smaller black dragon and turned around, holing a large pie. The smell soon filled the room and into the hallway, where Phobius was just about to knock on the door.

Crow practiced some of the poses Phobius had taught him while Rem studied, but he couldn't help glancing over at him as he wrote. After he was finished, Crow walked over to him. "I don't suppose you could...teach me...how to read?" he asked hesitantly, but his eyes lit up at the mention of pie. "Of course!" he said, grinning and watched with bated breath as Rem prepared the treat. He smiled with glee at the sight of it, but just as he was about to take a slice, a knock was heard at the door. "Oh, no, I hope it's not the Fire Guardian..." Crow said uneasily as he went to answer it. "Phobius? Is something wrong?" he asked as he opened the door to reveal the Fear Guardian waiting behind it.

Phobius stood at the door quietly as he looked down to the young fear dragon while Rem walked up beside him with the same confused face due to the fear guardian's unexpected arrival. "I am here to simply check up on you two. I heard that Infernus was here not too long ago and wanted to make sure you two were alright. It seems as only myself and three other guardians fully trust the two of you at the moment, and as you have seen, the others are quiet vocal about their distrust. Infernus came to me however and spoke of you Rem being an unnatural blemish on the dragon kind. Something about your element not matching your scale colour. You are a shadow dragon, aren't you?" asked the fear guardian with a sigh. Rem looked down with a confused face to Crow before looking at his black scaled paw and shaking his head. "No, I am a fire dragon. I was born with black scales though." replied the young fire dragon with a tilted head. "Black scales but a fire dragon. Unique and useful. Tell me Rem, why have you and Crow come to the western lands. I am sure you enjoyed your lives back home." said Phobius with an intrigued tone as he entered and closed the door. "Well... Crow and I were forced to flee after a tyrant of the lands tore through our home. I found Crow lying motionless at the edge of town, but I grabbed him because he moaned lightly as I passed. I flew day and night carrying him across the ocean and Cyril found us in a cave on the shore." replied the black dragon as he sat on the couch and curled up.

Crow shuddered slightly and looked down at his feet at the mention of what had happened in the East, he could almost see the fire that had burned the houses of his beloved village down to the ground. Although he had never really belonged there, it had been the only home the young dragon could remember. But he blinked in confusion as Rem mentioned how they had escaped, he remembered waking up as they were flying over the city...and when the dragons first attacked...but he couldn't recall how he became unconscious. Crow frowned and sat down on the large circular rug that covered the floor, deep in thought. Had he been attacked? No…he didn't have any injuries from that night...with a sigh he looked over at Phobius and Rem, who were still talking about what had happened, all the way up to the pairs arrival at the academy.

As Rem finished his explanation to the guardian, Phobius bowed his head in condolence. "I see, you two have not had the best of lives, especially for ones so young. You do not have to worry here. As long as I am around, you two shall have no harm. But you two must be wary about moving around the city. Once word spreads of your arrival in the city, many may try to hunt you down and kill you all in revenge for losing someone that they loved during the war. Move at night, stick to the side streets and do not get caught up in crowds. I will let you know now that the other guardians will be extremely tough on you two in your courses because of your nationality. Us three need to stick together through these hard times, but we can and will get through it." said the guardian as he stood up to leave. "Now rest, young eastern dragons, you have a long day tomorrow and Rem, I shall teach you on your element. I do not want that abusive fire guardian anywhere near you. He will not hesitate to place you in a test that could possibly kill you. Good night." he warned as he exited through the door and into the darkened hallways. Rem turned to Crow and gave a stressed sigh before waving him over and beginning to explain to his young friend the letters and words.

Crow nodded and waved goodbye to the Fear Guardian, who cast a warm smile towards the two before he left and shut the door behind him. Phobius could hear the two talking faintly through the wall as Rem began helping Crow with his words, something the young dragon had been having a lot of difficulty with. The guardian had also been helping Crow learn to read and write, but it had proved to be a very trying task. He smiled slightly as he could hear the two laughing and started walking down the dark corridor towards his own room. He was glad that Rem was awake again, it was clear that the two cared about each other very much, after all, they were all that remained of their village. It was rather sad really, that the two should lose so much and be forced to such subjugation here. Phobius sighed and entered the main hall, the moonlight shone brightly through the glass ceiling above him, and bathed the area in a pale light. Suddenly, a figure stepped out of the shadows. "Out so late, Phobius?" came the smooth voice of Reuel, the Wind Guardian, and Phobius narrowed his eyes and growled. "Calm down now, I'm not here to attack anyone." drawled the Guardian, as he leant against the main statue that stood in the center of the room. "Why do I get the feeling you're lying?" said Phobius coldly as he paced across the room, heading for the opposite end. "Wait a moment, Fear Dragon. I would like a word."

"My, you are very civil when you want something, aren't you?" Phobius remarked as he paused at the exit. The Wind Dragon crossed his arms and turned towards the other Guardian. "We both know that I'm no brute like Infurnus. Listen to me carefully, Phobius. We've put up with your behaviour towards the Easterlings for long enough, but you've grown to attached to them. It's time you stopped this foolish facade with the young fear dragon and left him alone." he said coldly, and Phobius's face contorted in anger. "You have no right to tell me what to do! Both the Earth and Ice Guardians support the Easterlings as well-" but he was cut off by Reuel "They do not show the same favoritism as you." and the Wind Guardian walked closer to the Fear Dragon, who looked away in anger. "We all know why you care for the child, he reminds you of your son. But you need to stay away from him, I'm on your side, Phobius. Infurnus and the others have been conspiring against you, and they plan on using the Easterlings against you, in one way or another." Phobius's eyes widened and he looked up to the Wind Guardian in shock, but he quickly regained his anger and pushed past him. "How...dare you speak of my son. Crow isn't...he could never replace him I know this...I do NOT care about him!" Phobius snapped, and his eyes stung with tears as he was reminded of his beloved child, Farel. Reuel looked at the Fear Guardian with pity and he placed a paw on his shoulder. "Then take my advice, and stay away from him. From both of them." he said quietly and walked away, leaving the Guardian alone in the moonlight. After a few moments, Phobius quietly left the main entrance, and headed back towards his quarters.

In the doorway on the opposite end, Crow watched him leave with tears in his eyes, and turned around, running back towards the dormitory, a small piece of parchment clutched between his paw, with some of his first words scrawled across it.


	3. Chapter 3

Fall of the East: Chapter 3

Rem watched in shock and confusion as he looked up from his drawing and watched as Crow started heading for his room. "Crow wait!" he said as he spread his wings and flipped in front of the crying fear dragon. Rem instantly brought him into a comforting hug and allowed the young dragon to cry into his shoulder. "Shhh... it's alright Crow." he said in a whisper as he hugged the young dragon tighter. As he got the young fear dragon to explain what happened, a slight amount of fury build within him. _"So it was all an act..."_ he thought to himself. As he released the young dragon, Rem ripped a piece of parchment from his sketchbook and wrote down a long note. Leaving it on the table, the fire dragon growled and packed his things. He then instructed Crow to do the same and when he was finished, led the young dragon off of the balcony and into the alleyways below. They walked for hours and after the time constantly hiding from any other dragons, found an old abandoned building. After confirming there was no one living inside, Rem led Crow to the second floor and told him to stay there, leaving to find some basic supplies. First, Rem came back with a large circular mattress and then some basic food and fluids. Rem then snuck into a large shop with writing utensils, parchment, scrolls and other trinkets before "borrowing" them and returning to the building on the far side of town, away from the academy. "We can teach each other now Crow. You can help me learn to live on our own and I can teach you everything my father taught me." he said in a saddened tone.

Crow wept as he stumbled into their apartment, and could hardly choke out a few words, but Rem seemed to understand what had happened, and started making the preparations for them to leave. Crow was heartbroken, he had started to consider Phobius almost like a father, but now he could see that the only reason the Guardian had ever cared about him was because he had lost his son in the wars. It had all been a lie, all of it, and he had been stupid enough to believe that the kindness Phobius had shown him was genuine. Eventually, he stopped crying and simply followed Rem out of the academy, his eyes turning hollow and blank. He would never trust anyone other than Rem ever again, the pain simply wasn't worth it.

Phobius hardly got any sleep that night, and the next morning he awoke feeling awful. Reuel always had a way of twisting the thoughts and words of another with that silver tongue of his. He groaned and got up, glancing out one of the windows to see the sun rise over the horizon. The day past without anything notable happening, but all he while, Phobius was wrestling with his thoughts concerning Crow and his son. Yes, Crow could never replace Feral, but over the days he had gotten to know him, Phobius had developed feelings for the young dragon. It had been wrong of him to deny it, and he was determined to ignore what Reuel had asked of him and continue protecting Rem and Crow from their wrath. With this new zeal, he marched directly to their room around mid-day and knocked on the door. "Crow? Rem? Are you there? It's time for your training." he said and walked in, but the place was empty. Usually, Crow would be in the main area practising or in his room, but neither of them were present. "Rem? Chronos?" he called out, but to no answer. A spare piece of parchment rested on the main table, a message had been feverishly written across it, and the page was blotted with ink as well. He picked it up and began to read, and his blood turned cold as he did. "I have taken Crow away, we will never return for this slight against us, you have grievously harmed my friend and for that I will never forgive you Phobius. What I thought was a sanctuary for us turned into a nightmare, how could you have said such cruel things against Crow? It does not matter, we are gone you will never find us!" Phobius cried out in shock and threw the letter away, unable to read anymore.

What had happened...had Crow...heard what he had said last night? "Reuel!" he snarled, that bastard must have known Crow or Rem was nearby! "And I was foolish enough to let him goad me into saying such things." he hissed. Without another seconds hesitation, the Guardian rushed out of the room, and headed towards the main chamber. As he walked he noticed a piece of paper, lying on the ground near the door to Rem and Crows room. He picked it up and his eyes widened as he realized what it was. The hesitant and messy writing was no other than Crow's "He must have wanted me to see this..." he said quietly to himself, and tucked the parchment away. Before flying into the main chamber, where he pinned the Wind Guardian to the ground. "You Monster! You KNEW that Crow was there last night! You knew and you goaded me into saying those things!" he roared, but the Wind Dragon merely smirked, despite Phobius's claws latched firmly around his neck. The students in the room cried out in shock at what was happening, and scrambled about in fear. "Of course I knew, it was so obvious, the little wretch was right behind you! But once he saw me he backed away...must have stopped to listen once I mentioned him!" Reuel laughed, but it was cut off as Phobius started to choke him, his white eyes blazing with anger. "How...dare...you!" he snarled, but Reuel only laughed harder. "I didn't make you say anything, fool, you caused this! I'm guessing the little bird has flown away? No doubt taking that other abomination with him!" "SILENCE!" roared Phobius and the air started to shimmer around him. "I hope you've enjoyed our conversation, Reuel, because it is the last thing, you will ever hear!" he roared, and unleashed a sonic scream point blank at the Wind Guardian, who cried out in terror as the red beam crushed him into the floor.

Suddenly, Phobius was grabbed from behind and pulled back by the other guardians, causing the beam to shoot up into the celling, breaking the window and showering everyone in the room with glass. "What is the meaning of this?" cried one of the Elders as they rushed in to help Reuel, who was now unconscious. Phobius struggled to break lose but two guardians held him firmly. "I was merely dealing justice where it was due!" he snapped. "Phobius...you have committed a great crime against us." said the Ice Guardian seriously, but nodded to the other to let him go. The Fear Dragon shrugged away from them and pointed aggressively towards Reuel, whose head lolled to the side as the healers gently took him towards the Healing Ward. "That Dragon is the cause for Rem and Crow's disappearance!" he said coldly, and the guardian's eyes widened in surprise. "What, do you mean they've been abducted? Killed?" growled the Earth Guardian.

Phobius looked to the ground before addressing him. "Not exactly...they have run away." he said and the guardians looked at him in confusion. "Last night, I was walking back to my quarters when I was confronted by Reuel, he insisted that I distance myself from Crow and Rem...because I was growing to attached to the Easterlings...mostly because the younger of the two resembled my son. I was angered by his statement, and venomously denied that I felt anything towards the pair...but Crow had followed me, and he heard me say such things. He must have told Rem, and now they have fled." he said, his voice full of regret. The other dragons frowned at his story and were silent, until the Guardian of Earth spoke up. "We must find them, if they are still in the city, they are in grave danger." he said solemnly, and Phobius looked up in shock, he had not expected this. Infurnus scoffed "Why should we look for a pair of sewage rats? They had their chance and now they are gone, let them face the consequences of their actions! It is Phobius we should be focusing on! He attacked the Guardian of Wind! And might have severely injured him, he should be put on trial!" snarled the Fire Guardian, but before Phobius could interject, the Guardian of Earth held up a paw.

"Phobius will have to face the consequences of his actions...but not now. We will send out search parties for the two and we will bring them back. And EVERYONE is to participate, Infernus." he added coldly as the Fire Guardian turned to leave. The Elder growled quietly before nodding curtly. "Good, now let's go." said the Earth Dragon and turned to leave, but Phobius placed a paw on his shoulder. "I want to thank you, for doing this. I know you are putting yourself at risk for these two." the Elder simply shook his head. "Think nothing of it, Phobius. For now, let's just hope we find them before Death does." he said gravely, and the Fear Guardian nodded and took off, heading towards the city.

Rem slunk through the alleyways of Warfang as he moved about the city in search of more supplies for Crow and himself. He had managed to get some black cloth for himself and his friend so that they could cover their eastern markings without looking too suspicious. As he rounded another corner the fire dragon placed a couple armor bracers in his side-bag as he walked by a stand before continuing on his way back into another alley. But as he turned a fourth corner to head back to the street, he literally ran into the last dragon he wanted to. The fear guardian. With a snarl, the young black dragon blew a cloud of smoke around the two and took off, quickly losing the guardian and heading straight back to his and Crow's new home and placing his collected items in front of the two. "How is your writing coming?" he asked as if nothing had happened on his trip.

Crow blinked as Rem walked into the abandoned building and placed his quill down with a sigh. The parchment was blank. "I just can't do it, everything's so confusing!" he muttered quietly and flopped back onto the wooden floor. Part of the roof had been blasted off and he could see the sky that had been painted red and orange by the setting sun. It was strange to think that the two of them had gone from living at the Academy, the most prestigious and impressive buildings in the entire city, to a burnt out building. It was like waking up from a dream...no...from a nightmare. "Did you make it through the market alright?" he asked, placing a paw over the cloth that covered his mark.

Rem sat down beside the young dragon and draped a wing over him. "You will get it soon enough. Here, let me show you." said the male as he placed the quill in Crow's paw and guided the young dragon's paw through the motions of the first few letters and symbols of the alphabet to help him get a feel for it. As he asked about the market however, Rem seemed to stiffen for a second before speaking. "Same as usual. But I had to return earlier than I wanted. Too many..." he paused for a second. "Too many guards in the area for my liking." he finished after a moment.

Crow smiled slightly at the letters appeared on the paper, but his face fell at the mention of the guards. "We should be fine, I doubt anyone is looking for us anyways." he said glumly but suddenly a commotion started outside near the entrance of the empty building. Shouts of heralds could be heard and the heavy fall of footsteps echoed down the streets as night began to fall. "What's going on out there?" asked Crow as he got to his feet and peered outside. He gasped and quickly ducked under the windowsill, for it was Infurnus, who was atop a platform surrounded by guards in the middle of the market outside. "Attention!" he barked, flaring his wings in irritation "We are here looking for two fugitives! They have escaped from the Academy and our honorable Guardians of Earth, Ice and Fear have made it the top priority of our forces to see them returned to us." he said, his voice dripping with sarcasm, it was clear that this was the last place he wanted to be. With a sigh, he pulled out a flyer, bearing the symbol of the Eastern Marks. "If anyone has seen two young dragons, of dark scales and bearing the mark of the enemy on their shoulders, please come forward and divulge your information!" he shouted and the crowd muttered amongst themselves at the sight of the mark. Crow's eyes widened in fear as he peered out into the torchlight clearing below. Would anyone come forward?

The young dragon's paranoia was furthered when the beating of wings hailed the arrival of Phobius, who landed on the platform next to Infurnus. He muttered something angrily to the Fire Guardian, who rolled his eyes and stepped down from the platform. "What my fellow Guardian has failed to convene, is that these young ones are not hostile, nor are they are prisoners!" he added, with a slight glare towards Infurnus. "Please, if anyone has seen anything, come forward." he said, and hopped down from the platform. The guards began to disperse into the market place while the two Guardians remained near the platform, talking quietly. Crow gazed at the Fear Dragon with mixed emotions, and turned away, sliding down the wall as he tried to hold back his tears. He had to be stronger than this! And with a slight snarl he pushed himself up off the floor and peered outside, and what he saw almost stopped his heart. One of the market goers had approached the two guardians, and the wolfish creature was gesturing towards their new home! "Rem!" he whispered, almost tripping over his feet as he scrambled back over to his friend, "we've got to hide! I think the guardians are coming over here!" he said, looking down towards the entrance through a gaping hole in the floor.

Rem looked around frantically for a few moments and after thinking, he pulled the large, dark mattress over the hole that served as their entrance. He then grabbed onto Crow and hid under a part of the collapsed roof, dragging some rocks to cover their entrance and sat quiet. The fire dragon stiffened as he heard the flapping of wings outside the windows and held his breath while placing a paw over Crow's mouth. "If they were in here, they are gone now!" called out the voice of Infernus as he turned and flew away. The guardian looked back and spotted the corner of Rem's blue eye but said nothing and left. If no one knew where the two were but himself, he could easily rid himself of the two and no one would know, not even Phobius until they found the bodies. He would just have to make it look like suicide, that was all.

Phobius scouted the abandoned building carefully, he wasn't so sure that the wolf had been completely honest in their evidence, but by some miracle their lie had actually led them straight to where Rem and Crow had been hiding. He walked inside and bent down, picking up a quill that had been tossed aside. Some other familiar objects also lay scattered around the building, but all was quiet, Infurnus was probably right, they were gone now. With a sigh he straightened up. "Guards!" he snapped and two other dragons rushed inside. Crow squeezed his eyes shut in fear and held onto Rem's arm tightly. "The dragons we are looking for must have known we were coming, so they can't have gone far, search the area! And keep someone posted in the marketplace in case they decide to come back, they obviously left in a hurry, for they didn't take much." he said clearly and the guards nodded before rushing outside. Phobius looked back at the empty hall one last time before spreading his wings to join the search. As soon as he as gone, Crow pried Rem's hand away and gasped for air. "Well, that was lucky!" he panted and squirmed out of their hiding place.

Rem crawled out careful not to make any noise and sighed. "Yeah, a bit to close for comfort however. Place everything in our bags, I am going to look for a way out here and try to find us a new place to stay. I will be back here by midnight. If I am not, head south of the city and find a cave to hide in and take whatever you can." he said before spreading his wings and slipping out of the hole in the roof without another sound.

Crow nodded and started packing what little supplies they had. "Good luck!" he called out quietly as Rem disappeared, but he wasn't sure if the older dragon had heard him or not. It was strange, he had lived almost his entire life on his own, never having anyone really care about him or tell him what to do, but apart from occasionally seeing Rem, he had been alone. But now, after spending so much time with the fire Dragon, Crow couldn't bear to see him go on without him. He knelt down, and placed the papers neatly into one of the bags. Crow knew that feeling this attachment to another dragon was a bad idea, but he wouldn't let Rem get hurt, it didn't matter if he was younger, he would do whatever it took to become stronger, so that nothing would ever hurt them again. Rem wasn't used to living like this, but he was, they would be alright. They could be a family...maybe...The young dragon smiled slightly at the thought and placed the bag in front of him, waiting in the darkness for his friend to return.

Rem silently flew over the rooftops of Warfang as he searched for a new hideout for the two of them. After a half an hour passed, he spotted another abandoned building. It was considerably smaller than the one they were currently residing in, but it was better than nothing. After confirming it was not taken, Rem flew back to the large building. On his way however, a large force slammed into the male's back, sending him spiraling down into an alley a few blocks away. As he stood up he felt himself grabbed by his tail and lifted into the air. The sight that met him was not pleasing, Infernus. "So you think you two could hide in the city huh? Well don't worry, I am not going to kill you... the citizens are!" he said as he started cutting into himself with Rem's tail blade, and even sometimes grabbing the black dragon's leg and scratching himself. "Wait until they hear 'Oh, thank the ancestors you are here... that ravenous eastern did this to me!" he said in a sarcastic tone before grabbing Rem's head and smashing it into the side of a building. As blood dripped from the side of Rem's head, the fire elder dropped his body onto the roof and flew back to the academy.

As time went on, Crow became more and more anxious, it was at least half and hour past midnight, but Rem had still not returned. The young dragon paced back and forth nervously, not really wanting to leave in case his friend suddenly returned. After another fifteen minutes, he growled slightly and slung the bag over his back, and flapping up on top of the building through the gap in the ceiling. As he crouched there, carefully taking in the sights of the marketplace below, his eyes widened in surprise as he saw an angry crowd marching down on of the streets. He quickly leapt down and pressed himself behind a broken wall. "Have you heard the news?" one of the villagers snapped to his neighbour, who had blearily stumbled outside at the sound of the commotion. "One of our Guardians was attacked by those Easterlings! He barely made it back alive!" The crowd roared in outrage at this news and Crow gritted his teeth.

As least he knew that Rem was alive, he must have been injured by Infurnus, and was just waiting until he felt better, yes, that must be it. Leaving the angry mob behind, he quickly disappeared into the shadows, something he was rather good at, and weaved his way South of the city, heading back towards the beech. As he travelled, he stumbled over a broken piece of stone in an alleyway and fell to the ground hard. Crow winced, but as he started to get back up, another dragon appeared in front of him. She was young, no older than Crow, and it was easy enough to tell by the state of her scales that she was a beggar. Behind her were two anthro-wolves, who sat perched onto of a pile of trash, their sunken, hollow eyes glowing dimly in the night. "Well, well, well. What do we have here boys? A trespasser!" she drawled, spiting to the ground as she said so. "This here is our turf, newbie, and you'd do well to remember it!" she said, leaning over and glaring at him. Crow quickly scrambled to his feet and backed up "S-sorry, I didn't know-" "Didn't know! Didn't knnnoooowwww? Do you here that boys?" she exclaimed and the two wolves laughed. She whipped around and cuffed Crow over the head. "That's not the first time I've heard that excuse. You'd do well to beat it, shrimp!" she said, crossing her arms.

Crow glared angrily at her "Fine, I'll leave!" he snapped and spun around, marching away. "Hey! Uh, wait a second kid!" she said spreading her wings and gliding beside him. "I may have been a little...over de top in my banishment of your figure there." she said landing in front of him. "What, first you want me to leave, and now you want me to stay? Make up your mind!" said Crow, rolling his eyes, but coming to a stop. "Hey, I do what I do to make sure that we" she jerked her thumb towards the wolves "don't get hurt. You seem like a ok kid. Why don't you stay with us for now? You're looking for a new home, aren't ya?" she said with a grin, and Crow's eyes widened in surprise. "How did you-" "Your bag there, runaways always carry a bag when they're going away." she said with a smile. He sighed and nodded "Well you're right, but I need to meet up with my friend, and so I need to go to the beach." he said and started to walk past her. "I wouldn't go that way if I were you, shrimp." she said "Folk down there don't take kindly to Easterlings." Crows eyes widened and he looked back at her, only to see her twirling the piece of cloth that had hidden his mark around her finger. "Hey! Give that back!" he snapped and grabbed at the cloth, tying it tightly back in place.

She laughed "Come on, don't be like that! We won't hurt you. None of us even know what the war was about. As long as you're one of us, we won't hurt ya, even if you are a Shrimp." she said with a slight smile. "Look, your friend probably asked you to meet up with him if you got separated right? Well me and my boys know this town better than anyone. We'll help you find them." she said and Crow smiled "You will?" "Yep, but in the morning, for now, we need to rest. That mob will have calmed down by then." she said and suddenly disappeared into a hole in the side of the ally. The two wolves snickered quietly and hurried after her. Crow hesitated for a moment, looking onto the street, which was still crowded with angry citizens, before he followed after them. Inside was some sort of underground room. The ceiling was very low, and support beams ran in every direction.

Across the floor, various quilts, blankets and rugs of varying decay and cleanliness were scattered about. The two wolves instantly dove into a pile of pillows and curled up to sleep. The female dragon, however, had a rather neat sleeping place. Wind chimes and ornaments hung from the ceiling and shone dully in the gloom. Crow hesitantly walked forward and sat down on one of the rugs. "Hey, relax kid, you're among friend now." said the dragoness with a smile. "Why do you keep calling me a kid? We're the same age, aren't we?" "Not by a long shot! I'm older than I look!" she said indignantly. "What's your name anyways, shrimp?" she said, placing her head on a pillow. "...Chronos. But just call me Crow." he said quietly. "Crow-nos" she said, rolling the unfamiliar name over her tongue. 'Easterlings have such strange words." "Well what's your name then!" muttered Crow, but he was smiling anyways. "Reyna. But I'm known around here as the Rat." she said with a grin. "Why's that?" asked Crow in confusion. "Oh, they call all of us rats. We beg and steal and live in gutters and under houses, so the name suits us." she said, gesturing to the room around them. "Above us is a shop. The owner knows we live down here, but as long as we don't steal from him, he doesn't bother us. Now those to over there" she pointed at the mass of fur and pillows "Are Ty and Lee, twins. Sometimes we have others that stay with us, but those two never seem to want to go. They don't say much, but they're good kids." she said with a smile. Crow nodded and lay down, finally relaxing. "And what about you?" "Me?" she asked, slightly surprised at his question. "Not much to say really, there's never much to say about a beggar. Used to live with my parents, but that kind of life didn't suit me, so I ran away. End of story." she said with a sigh. "And what about you, Crow?" she asked. He shrugged slightly "Well, I never ran away, mostly because I had nothing to run away from. I've been on my own for as long as I can remember. Rem...he was the only one who cared about me. He rescued me from the attack on our village, and brought me here, to the...well to this city. But we got separated when they discovered our hiding place." he said, drawing his wings around him as he started to fall asleep. "Rem...is he your brother?" she asked, her voice fading as her eyes closed. "No...just a good friend." he said with a smile and fell asleep.

Rem awoke to find himself still on the roof of the abandoned building. Disoriented still from the blow to his head, the blacked scaled male unknowingly stumbled into the hole in the roof and faceplanted onto the unforgiving tiled floor. ~What happened to me..?~ thought the male as he walked around the room and plopped onto his side, no longer being able to stand. Rem could still feel the blood trickling down the side of his head but chose to ignore it. As his eyes fell upon a single piece of paper on the floor, he reached out with his clawed paw and began to read. It has been the paper he was helping Crow learn to read and write on. This triggered a series of memories inside the young male's head and he groaned as they all came back at once. Pushing himself to his paws, Rem spread his wings and shot into the night sky, his black scales allowing him to blend into the night easily. Landing in a few alleyways, he would whisper loudly, calling out for his friend and frowning whenever he did not get a response. Growing in frustration, Rem smacked the flat end of his tail blade against a metal garbage can. This he would regret. "What was that!" called out a nearby guard. Before Rem could respond, they we upon the male. As they surrounded him, Rem felt his shoulder to see that he still had his cloth on. "What are you doing out here?" asked one of the guards in a rather rude tone, but this only made Rem panic. Out of instinct, the young male spread his wings but before he could get more than ten feet off the ground, he roared in pain as electricity coursed through him and dropped the male back down.

Rem awoke a few hours later to find himself chained up in a stone walled jail cell. He could hear the commotion of the city through the tiny window in his cell but nothing came from the male. Fear coursed through him as he saw that the cloth covering his eastern marking on his left shoulder. His thoughts were brought back to the guards however as they entered his cell and roughly grabbed onto him and dragged the black dragon out of the cell. Rem soon found himself in front of a large, booing and cursing crowd. The guards roughly lifted him into the air and exposed his underbelly by spreading his limbs out wide. The young dragon started to struggle in fear as he spotted a large crossbow being rolled out. He looked to his right to see Infernus with a triumphant smirk on his face as he turned to the crowd. "Ladies and gentlemen, what you are about to see in the justice that needs to be served for my attack!" he roared, and crowd responded with cheers. With a motion of his wing, Infernus ordered the attack and the bolt from the crossbow fired. Rem closed his eyes tight, but gasped and opened them as the bolt drove deep into his abdomen. The guards chuckled and bit at the young dragon's expression and dropped him to the ground. Blood started to stream from his mouth and he blankly watched the form of the fear guardian lay beside him with tearful eyes. He then felt himself lifted by the guardian and flown off. As the wall passed beneath him, Rem's eyes slowly closed his eyes and fell into a peaceful rest, hanging from the guardian's grasp over the rolling hills of the lands. The last words he heard were. "Do not worry, young eastern dragon. I shall take care of you."

It was dark and serene as the young dragon opened his eyes. The flicker of a torchlight on stone walls reflected off of his dull, black scales. As he tried to move, all he felt was pain. That was all he ever felt, pain. Curling his neck, the black dragon looked down with weary eyes to see his midsection wrapped up in snow white bandages, stained red where his wound sat. _"How am I still alive?"_ thought the young dragon as he looked around the medium sized room he was in. The sound of padfalls reached his ears and as they groaned against the wooden floors. "Ah, I see you are finally awake." rang the voice of the all too familiar fear guardian. As Rem turned and tried to stand, he found himself held down by the guardian. "Shhhh... you need to rest. I admit that I did speak those words that Crow surely told you, but I was played. The wind guardian an his silver tongue tricked me into saying something that was not true so that I could get him to leave." Seeing the understanding, yet confused face of the young dragon, the fear guardian continued. "You were captured and tried for the attack on the fire guardian. I knew that he was a dirty liar but he had gone to far with this. He had to you be executed. You remember the bolt being shot at you and striking you, right?" asked the guardian and after a moment, Rem nodded slowly. "You were severely wounded, but I managed to get you to my private estate far away from the city and had just enough healing gems to slow your bleeding enough for you to survive, but it will take time for you to fully heal. I will keep you here in secret but if you are to ever accompany me back to the city. You cannot show yourself to anyone. You must stay hidden in the alleyways until I come for you." Rem nodded once more before placing his head back down and slowly falling back into the darkness of the dream realm.

[3:10:14 PM] Exodus: "Crow. Crow wake up!" snapped Reya as she roughly shook the young fear dragon awake. Crow's eyes snapped open and he looked around in shock, temporarily forgetting where he was. "What-what is it?" he said shaking his head and getting to his feet as he recalled what had happened last night. "We've got to go to the market square, something bad is happening there...Crow...they've caught the other Eastern Dragon." she said nervously, glancing over at Ty and Lee, who were also awake and kneeling beside the opening to their hideout. Ty looked back at Reya and nodded "Good, it's all clear. We have to go, now!" she hissed and dragged Crow behind her, who hadn't said a word. Rem...was captured? How could this be? He stared blankly into space as Reya led the way towards the market square. Hundreds of citizens had gathered there, grumbling amongst themselves as they crowded around the main platform. "No...no there has to be a mistake, even if Rem was captured, they would have taken him back to the Academy!" he whispered as the four of them weaved their way through the crush. "I wouldn't be too sure of that, Crow." said Reya sadly and pointed up at the platform, which was now in plain sight. Crow almost screamed when he saw Rem up there, surrounded by guards, but Ty and Lee clapped their paws over his mouth. Lee held another paw to his own lips to signal silence, before both of the twins let go. Suddenly, Infurnus stepped forward and made his announcement, before motioning the giant crossbow, which had been placed on the other side of the court, to be loaded. Crow gasped and tried to make his way towards the weapon, but Reya and the others held him still. "You cant! There are over a hundred armed guards that surround the court, if they see you, you'll be caught too!" she hissed. "You can't just ask me to stand idly by while my best friend is murdered!" he snarled and struggled in their grasp, but suddenly, with a snap, the arrow was released. The bolt seemed to fly across the stadium in slow motion, the crowd was silent and all the while Crow could only watch as it sunk deep into Rem's stomach. "NOOOOO!" he screamed but his voice was drowned out in the cheers of the crowd around him. Blood poured from Rem's wounds and Crow sunk to his knee's, his eyes locked on his dying friend. "I have to save him..." he whispered and got to his feet, moving towards the stage, but Reya blocked his path. Her eyes were filled with pity, and she placed a hand on his shoulder. "It's too late, Crow. No one has ever survived that crossbow before. Come, lets go back you don't have to see this." she said quietly. Ty and Lee began to look around nervously as the crowd began to disperse, leaving them out in the open. Crow stared blankly up at the stage without saying a word, but didn't stop the others as they led him back to the hiding place. Once they had gotten back, Reya sat down beside him and placed a piece of bread in his paws. "Here...you haven't eaten all day." she said and tried to smile as Crow continued to stare blankly into space. "Look, I know he was your friend, but he's gone now. It may seem a little soon...but...will you stay with us? We can be your new family now, if you want. Us rats have got to stick together. We'll look after you if you decide to stay." she said, rather quickly. For a moment, Crow said nothing, then, he picked up the bread and started to nibble away at it. "Okay." he said quietly, and Reya smiled. "I promise, you're going to be OK Crow." she said but looked up as Ty and Lee suddenly shot into the hideout. "Where have you two been?" she asked quizzically but the anthro-wolves simply hopped up and down, as much as the low celling would allow them and pointed towards the entrance. "What, what's going on?" said Reya seriously, and Crow glanced over towards the twins as well. Lee walked over to Reya and whispered something, very faintly, into her ear. Her eyes widened and she looked over to Crow, who got to his feet and followed after her without a word. Heading straight back towards the market place, they arrived just in time to see Infurnus raging at the guards. "THERE WERE ONE HUNDRED OF YOU! AND YOU COULDN"T STOP HIM?" he bellowed, while the guards coward in fear before the guardian. "I'm sorry sir, but what does it matter? It's just his body, the Easterling died from the bolt." explained the captain, his eyes darting from side to side. Crow and Reya waited at the edge of an alleyway, glancing to one another in confusion. "Is there any proof of that? He was taken by a Guardian for crying out loud, if anyone would be able to save him from death, it would have been him!" he snarled, but seemed slightly stated by the Captains words. "If he has been saved, he has no-where to run. Every citizen in Warfang knows his face, there will be nowhere for him to hide, Sir." said the Captain confidently and Infurnus sighed. "Very well. In the meantime, I want our forces scouring the city for the second Easterling. I want him alive." he muttered with a scowl, and Crows eyes widened in fear. Reya tugged gently at his wing and the two of them retreated back into the shadows. "What do you think he meant by that?" asked Crow in confusion as they headed back towards the hideout. "I'm not sure, but by the sound of it, it seems that your friends body has been stolen." she said, slightly distracted as she glanced around the corners of the Alleyway to check if any guards were around. "But, maybe he's alive! Maybe one of the Guardians was able to save him before-" exclaimed Crow but Reya spun around and glared at him "Listen to me, Crow. I don't want you getting your hopes up. For all we know, that Guardian could have just stolen his body to burn because of a grudge." she said firmly, but her voice softened as Crow's smile faded away. "Listen to me, the entire City is going to be coming after you now. Is there any way to get rid of that mark on your arm?" she asked, but Crow shook his head. "No. I was born with it, all of the dragons from the East are." he said, touching the cloth lightly. "I was afraid of that. I suppose that cloth will just have to do...for now. Until we think of something better." she said with a sigh and continued back towards the hideout. "For now, you'll just have to lie low, once everything has calmed down you can help us on the streets." she said, and Crow nodded, but looked over his shoulder towards the market place. "They might think you're dead, but I know you're alive, Rem. And I promise, one day I'll find you." he thought before disappearing around the corner, and into the shadows.


	4. Chapter 4

Fall of the East: Chapter Four

_Four Months Later_

Rem paced back and forth as he awaited the Phobius at the entrance to the estate. Over the past four months the fear guardian had helped Rem master his element of fire to the best of his abilities in their spare time. The young black dragon had grown considerably over the time as well, growing into about 3/4 the size of an adult dragon as well as celebrating his fifteenth birthday. Today would be the first time that the fire dragon had been to the city since the execution attempt and he knew that he would have to keep a low profile. Everyone thought that he was dead. If he was spotted meandering around in the streets it could spell disaster. Rem agility and strength had also improved considerably from the fear guardian's constant training. When Phobius finally arrived, he handed Rem a fresh piece of black cloth to cover his marking on his shoulder. Placing it on, Rem followed the fear dragon out of the estate and took off, flying around the small valley in the mountains. As soon as Phobius and Rem landed in an empty alleyway, the fear guardian placed a spell on himself to alter his appearance to others and left Rem to go about the alleys, searching for any valuables to place in his collection. Rem had also learned a spell to change his scale colour to the natural red of the fire dragons, but his marking and cloth would still remain. To get to the next alleyway, Rem cast the spell and walked casually through the open area, stopping only once to buy a small piece of meat. Sitting inside the alleyway, the fire dragon released the spell when he was out of sight and began to eat alone, Listening to the sounds of the active city.

Atop one of the buildings nearby, a scrawny, half-starved black dragon was perched beside two Anthro wolves, who looked almost identical apart from their eye's. One had bottle green eyes and the other a golden yellow. They leered at the passing street rats that crept to close and sent them running while the black dragon laughed at their antics. "Come on, Reya will be waiting for us." he snickered before leaping down onto another rooftop, his patched wings flaring wide as they made their way towards the edge of the market. Over the past four months, Crow had come to know the city like the back of his hand, and now it was like a playground to him. The twins had also become good friends of his, even though they didn't say much. When Reya wanted something done, she would always send the three of them out to take care of it, and they had all become quiet the team.

Reya and Crow had also become good friends, and together, the four of them had become rather infamous in their thievery. In the village, Crow had gotten by by begging and eating of the scraps of others, but here, Reya had taught him that no-one could survive like that here. You had to take what you needed to survive, and nothing more. Crow had become a rather adept thief, and could get away with almost anything. He had hated lying low for the first month or two, but the four of them soon realized that no one even cared about a couple of low life street rats like them, and Crow had been out of the streets soon after, pulling his weight to help his friends survive. The light of the sun beat down on the black dragon now as he leapt from roof to roof, and he smiled as he remembered the memories he had gathered from living with his friends. Suddenly he paused and leaned over the edge of a building. "Hello, hello. What have we here?" he said as he spotted an unfamiliar face.

Ty and Lee peered over the edge on either side of him and grinned as they spotted the newcomer. "Come on guys, lets show this traveller some Warfang hospitality!" she said with a laugh and Ty and Lee looked at each other with a grin, before leaping off the building and disappearing into the crowd, while Crow followed from above. As the trailed the fire dragon, his eyes narrowed in confusion as his form seemed to shimmer. Was it some form of mirage? He paused in the shadow of a building and looked around carefully before he stared at the dragon and focused. Over the months, he had used his fear ability to his advantage when stealing, whenever the merchants tried to hide their valuables with a spell, Crow could use his powers to see right through it and snag it without a problem.

But without training, he hadn't been able to do much more than that. It was strange for him to see this kind of advanced spell on a dragon though, and he blinked in surprise as the mirage suddenly disappeared to reveal a black scaled dragon, rather large for his apparent age, and somewhat familiar...he stared at him thoughtfully before he received a signal from Lee, and leapt into action, casting the thought from his mind. The dragon had slipped into an alleyway and was starting to eat the food he had purchased from the market, when Ty and Lee shot past him, knocking right into him and shooting past him before whipping around a corner. Crow watched carefully from above, before spreading his torn wings and hopping over to the next building. "Well, what did you get?" he asked as he spotted the twins nearby, and the opened their paws to reveal some money, grinning from ear to ear. Crow laughed and motioned with his paw "Come on, let's go." he said and the trio took off, laughing and leaping from rooftop to rooftop without a care in the world. Soon enough, they arrived back at their new hideaway, a burnt out building at the edge of the city. It was a lot bigger than their old home, which was good because they had added a few more kids from the city to their group.

"Reya? You here?" Crow called out as they entered the building. A few of the younger kids who had been resting on the lower level cried out in joy as they saw Crow and the Twins arrive, and rushed around them. "What did you get?" they asked eagerly, until a female dragon suddenly landed beside the three. "Come on guys, give them some space!" she said, shooing them away. She was at least two years older than Crow, but was still small for her age, only slightly taller than him. Yet she held a very commanding presence, and had led their gang well over the past months. Her dull crimson scales gleamed dully in the light and she motioned for them to follow her up to the second level. The building's shell was mostly intact, but the floor that separated the first from the second level had almost been burned completely away, leaving about half of what had been originally there. Reya landed lightly on the charred floorboards and sat down in her nest. "So, what did you get?" she said with a grin.

Rem coughed as he picked himself up off the stone ground and looked around. Seeing the tail of a black dragon jumping from the roof nearby, he decided to follow him. Silently, he leapt behind the smaller male, trailing him just far enough away to not be heard or smelt. Growling, he looked on as the dragon dropped down beside the two Anthro wolves and listened in. As the fire dragon slowly got a closer look, he almost gasped at what he saw. Crow! He was still alive! The fire dragon was overjoyed by the sight before him, but soon frowned at a new thought. _"What has become of you, Crow? Resorting to thievery?" _Shaking his head, Rem slunk behind them until they ducked into some tunnel hidden away under a shop. Rem sat near the den and silently awaited the black dragon to exit once more. He would get some answers from Crow, no doubt about it. Making sure no one was around, he placed the spell on and silently waited in expectation. As soon as Crow exited, Rem would jump and pin him.

"Well, we snagged some bread from the market earlier this morning..." Crow gave a dramatic pause before motioning for the twins to show her the money they had snagged from the newcomer "and this!" he said and the three grinned while Reya counted the money carefully, before stowing it safely away. "Who did you steal this from? I thought I told you guys that we only take what we need, and this is more than enough." she said, sounding slightly worried. Crow flopped to the ground with a sigh while the twins exchanged uneasy looks. "Don't be so worried, it was a traveller, there's no way they even realized there money was missing, and if they did, we're long gone." Reya's expression didn't change so Crow continued "Besides, they're a newcomer, they won't be able to find their way around this place as easily as we do, so don't worry! We have people to look after, and this money will ensure that we'll be able to eat if times get tough!" he insisted, and at last Reya nodded. "Well alright, but lets stay away from the market place for a bit, until the heat of the bread fades away anyways." she said and the others sighed in relief.

Reya had been known to throw quite a tantrum when her orders weren't followed. Crow and the twins leapt down from the second platform and headed towards the exit. "I guess we can just take the rest of the day off, it's boiling outside, should we go to the beach perhaps?" asked Crow and Ty nodded eagerly while a look of horror came over Lee's face. The two of them laughed at his expression "It's okay Lee you don't have to go swimming, you can make sandcastles or something." said Crow and Lee reluctantly nodded before following after the other two into the ally's outside.

As soon as the three exited the tunnel, Rem leapt into action. First he shot a fire ball in front of the three to stop them before leaping onto the first wolf snarling, he kicked off and grabbed onto the second wolf, punching him across the jaw. With a quick back-flip he then landed on top of Crow and pinned him stomach down, and placed his tail blade on the front of his throat. "So you think you can take my coin, eh?" snarled the fire dragon and slammed his fist into the back of the younger dragon's head. lifting him up by the horn, Rem reached for the cloth on his arm and snarled. "I knew it was you, Crow. Why are you living like this! You are so much better than this. I don't even know you anymore!" snarled the male as he jumped off and avoided one wolf who had recovered and landed on Rem. Removing the spell, Rem flashed the marking on his shoulder to the fear dragon before placing his spell back on. "The Crow I knew would never drop down as low as thievery." he said as he spread his wing and flew off, landing inside another alleyway and waiting for Phobius to return.

Crow cried out in shock as the fire suddenly appeared before them and he was pushed down into the ground. Ty and Lee tried valiantly to fend off his attacker, but to no avail, they seemed to know exactly when the young wolves would attack, and mad sure Crow couldn't escape. As they placed their tail blade in front of his neck and slammed his head into the ground, Crow screamed in pain "Stop! I'll give you your money back, please, just let me go!" he said, his claws digging into the ground in agony as the attacker punched him in the face. The young dragon blinked blood out of his eyes and spotted the mark on his attackers shoulder. He was saying something, his name but Crow's ears were ringing from the head trauma he had suffered. "R-rem?" he said before the dragon took off and flew away.

The twins rushed over to him and helped him up, looking at each other in concern as the Fear Dragon started coughing up blood. "It's okay, I'm fine!" he snapped and stumbled away from them. How could he have not realized that the dragon they had attacked was Rem? And now he had shamed him. His eyes stung with tears at the thought of what Rem must think of him, a thieving rat of the city. But wasn't that what he was in the Aeon? He had been a beggar, scrounging off scraps that even the crows didn't want. Wasn't this better? It's not like he had a choice, Reya had offered him a home and he had to do what he could to help her and the rest of his friends. With a sigh, he whipped the blood away and looked over towards the twins, who were still staring at him, their eyes wide with concern. "...why don't you two go on without me? I just need to think for a little bit." he said quietly and took off into the sky. He flew silently for a while, occasionally adjusting the rag that circled his shoulder as he scanned the city for any sign of Rem. Eventually, he spotted the Academy in the distance, but his eyes narrowed and he landed atop a cathedral. The spires shot high into the sky and he sat at the very edge like some sort of gargoyle, watching the sun set over the city.

Phobius landed lightly as he met up with his young apprentice near the edge of the city. Looking down, he watched as the young fire dragon adjusted the cloth on his shoulder, which now had a slight claw mark in it. "Did you run into some trouble?" he asked in a concerned tone as he sat down beside Rem and began to untie the cloth, then retie it once again. Rem sat and frowned at the ground, never lifting his gaze to meet the fear guardian's. "No, Master Phobius. Just ran into a bunch of thugs when I was resting near the market, trying to get a bite to eat. They took my coin, but I found them and sent them a message. That's all... a bunch of no good, thieving low-lives." replied the teenaged dragon. Nodding, Phobius spread his wings and took off, Rem in close tow. The fire dragon turned back to the city one last time and created a smoke ring, something he had always done to signal the Crow his position. He did not know what compelled him to create it, but it was done and he was quickly through the gate and out of the city.

As the sun sank below the horizon, Crow figured he should probably return to the hideout, yet he couldn't seem to move. His limbs felt heavy and tried, perhaps he should just stay up here for the night. It wasn't uncommon, Crow usually would leave the hideout for a couple of days to just give himself some space from the others so that he could practise his abilities. The cathedral happened to be one of his favourite places in the city, it wasn't as tall as the Academy, but it was high up enough that he could scope the surrounding area for trouble. With a sigh he lay back, resting his head against the cracked stone, only to sit up in surprise as he spotted Reya. "Are you okay?" she asked, hopping up to the ledge and sitting down beside him. Crow gazed at her for a second then looked away, wrapping his wings around him. "Talk to me Crow. Ty and Lee told me what happened. You were attacked by that dragon you stole money from right?" Her voice wasn't scolding, but it was easy enough to pick out the apprehension it carried. Crow nodded slightly. "It was Rem." he said, squeezing his eyes shut at the memory. Reya's eyes widened in surprise "The twins failed to mention that. Didn't you recognize him?"

"No! That's the point! He must think I stole from him on purpose, but he's grown so much, and I just thought he was some newcomer! Now Rem thinks I'm some worthless thief!" he said, his voice breaking as he admitted it to himself, and buried his face behind one of his wings. Reya frowned and placed a paw on the young dragons shoulder. "Listen to me, Crow. I'm sure Rem doesn't think those things." she said gently "Yes he does!" sobbed Crow, pushing her paw away. "Well then he is a fool to think so lowly of you. You've done what you had to do to survive. We all did. I'm sure if Rem knew what you had to live through every day, he wouldn't judge you so harshly." Crow stared down at the city below, the torch lit streets still full of citizens as they made their way home for the night. "What does it matter, it's not like I'll ever get the chance to explain myself to him. He flew away without a word after he beat me into the ground." he said quietly, his pale eyes growing dull. Reya sighed and spread her wings "I'll leave, for now, but I want you to promise me you'll return to the hideout tomorrow alright? At least your friend is alive, be happy about that." she said quietly and leapt from the cathedral, spiraling down towards the rooftops and vanishing out of sight.

Crow sighed and curled his tail around the ledge, wishing that he had never gone to the market today. Suddenly in the distance, a smoke ring appeared and Crows eyes widened in shock, could it be him? He knew that smoke rings were rather common in the city, but to see one so soon after his 'meeting' with Rem...He just had to see for himself. Without wasting another second, Crow spread his wings and quickly flapped his way across the city, veering up and down as he tried to control his flight path. Hoping from rooftop to rooftop was easy enough, but he had never really mastered high altitude flight yet. Soon enough, he reached the place where the smoke ring had been placed and looked around eagerly for any sigh of Rem. The fading scent lingered near the City Gate and he wondered if he should leave the boundaries of the city and search for his friend out there, but where could he be? Had he been hiding in the wilderness all this time, waiting for him? He had to find out, angling his wings, the young Fear Dragon shot out of the city and headed towards the ground. "Rem?" he called, looking around as he hit the earth with a dull thud.

After informing the fear guardian that he would return to the estate by midnight, Rem sat patiently in the fields with his spell on, blending him to the surrounding area. "Rem?" The fire dragon flicked his ears at the call of his name and opened his eyes. Looking to his south a bit, he could see the smaller black form of Crow. Satisfied that the young dragon had followed the signal as always, the teenaged fire dragon slowly stood and spread his large wings, landing a few feet from the fear dragon with a low growl emitting from his throat. The fire dragon stood in a defensive stance, ready to leap at the younger dragon at any moment, but held himself back and sat down, wrapping his tail around his paws and placing his wings slightly spread to make himself look bigger and show his tail blade as a threat at the same time. Rem sat quiet, awaiting the younger dragon to try and explain himself.

Crow let out a squeak of fright and tumbled back over his paws as the large Fire Dragon landed in front of him. He blinked in surprise and got up shakily backing away slowly from the larger dragon. "Rem, is that really you?" he asked as the mirage shimmered around his old friend. "Listen to me, I'm sorry about what happened earlier, if I had realized it was you I never would have asked the twins to steal from you, I swear. I...I brought your money with me!" he said and took out some coins, they weren't Rems of course, and he silently cursed himself for not going back to the hideout to bring his real money back, but it wasn't fair to the others to just take it away, and they were so excited about it, he would just give Rem some of his own funds that he had been saving over the past few months, it was the same amount anyways. He quickly placed the money on the ground and then backed up again. Rem seemed so...intimidating, he was a lot bigger than the last time they had seen each other, wear as Crow hadn't grown at all. He was probably even more malnourished than when they had parted ways. All Crow wanted was for Rem to act like his old self, a kind, caring, brotherly like figure that he had been at the academy. Had his act of thievery changed Rems perspective on him this much as to expect an attack. Crow drew his wings around him and looked up at the fire dragon "I'm not going to hurt you, you know. I don't know why you're acting so defensive." he said, trying to smile.

"Keep it." the fire dragon said plainly as he looked around before allowing his mirage to fade off, revealing his natural black scales. "And like you could hurt me anyways. Phobius had been training me non-stop for the past four months. i have mastered my element and battle style. Heck, I was even able to beat him once or twice, but that is not why I called you. I want answers. The Crow I knew never stole, only worked to achieve what he needed. That was the Crow I thought of as a younger brother. That is the Crow I desperately begged my parents to adopt. THAT was my friend. Not some low life thug who's only thought is to take what other's need to survive." growled the male and in his anger, he did not realize that flames not covered his tail blade.

Crow quavered in fear for a moment, but Reya's words echoed in his mind and his eyes narrowed. "I could say the same for you. You've changed a lot over the past four months. While you've been away training with Phobius, I've been trying to survive!" he muttered indignantly, his voice rising. "You have no right to judge me for what I've become. And if you think that I was some sort of saint four months ago, then you're wrong. I've always begged and lived on the streets, I was the scourge of our village, and I realize that now. I did what I had to do to survive, and help those who took me in when no one else would!" he growled and stooped down to pick up the coins before straightening up and staring Rem right in the eyes. "You have no right to judge me, because you never came back. You left me to rot in the gutters of Warfang. And then, you overestimated my 'wickedness' and sought to attack me. If you had just shown up and asked I would have given your money back! You didn't even forcibly take it, just hurt me, and my new friends!" he snapped, his real anger and fury and pain that he had been keeping pent up inside him all this time finally venting, and tears of rage and sorrow started to appear in the corner of his eyes, but he quickly whipped them away. "So...there. I hope that explained everything that you didn't understand." Crow said coldly and turned around, heading towards the city once more, his heart feeling heavier than it had in ages.

Rem looked on as the young dragon started to yell at him. "I'm sorry." he said quietly. "You are right. It was not my position to judge you like I did. But you have to understand that I have wanted to come back. I have worried every day wondering if you were still alive or a corpse rotting in the streets. I spent three of the last four month lying in a bed like a crippled elder because it pained my wound too much to move. More than once Phobius had to force feed me because all I wanted was to die to escape the pain. So you have to understand when I finally get a chance to come and find you, and am strong enough to do so that I get robbed by the one dragon I care about most! I am not going to act too kindly on it. If you wish for me to leave you alone, I shall return to Phobius and stay hidden from the world so that it does not cause anymore grief."

Crow paused at his words and listened without turning to face him. He was ashamed of his actions and to hear of his friends plight grieved him beyond anything he had felt before, but something he had said could not be ignored. After a moment, he spoke "Why are you with Phobius?" he asked quietly.

"I know that you do not trust him, Crow. And I do not blame him. But after he recused and brought me back to health. He explained everything that happened that night. Crow, the wind guardian saw you waiting and tricked Phobius into saying those things. He even offered for me to strike him down if I did not believe him." replied the fire dragon as he sat in a more comfortable position. The night was starting to become crisp as the sun disappeared behind the horizon. Crickets could be heard from all around, giving the area a peaceful sounding bliss. Rem's ear flicked as he looked to his left and gasped as he saw a large cat launch itself at the younger dragon. On instinct, rem growled and leapt forward. He soon stood over the younger dragon, The cougar's teeth and claws driving deep into his foreleg. With a swift flick of his tail, Rem beheaded the cat and pulled its teeth out of his leg and sat down, holing his injured leg to his body as the blood dripped to the ground below.

"Rem!" gasped Crow as the cat attacked, and despite his better judgment he rushed over towards the Fire Dragon and examined his wounds. "I'm sorry, I should have seen it..." he said as he pulled the cloth that hid his mark and wrapped it around Rem's leg, slightly stemming the wound. "You should probably get that looked at before it gets infected..." he trailed off as he realized what he was doing. He was acting as he would have four months ago, before he joined Reya and her group. With a slight intake of breath, he stepped back, whipping the blood from his paws onto the grass. "Phobius might have been tricked into saying those things, but at the end of the day, he still had the choice to say them or not. I...I can't go with you, Rem. I have...friends...here that I have to look after. But...perhaps, I could visit you again?" he asked, hopeful.

Rem looked down to the younger dragon and nodded in understanding as he reached for the cloth. "You need this more than I do, Crow. I will just get it bandaged when I get back to Phobius. He was in a tough position Crow... if he said that he did care, he would have lost his position as a guardian and would have been tried and be listed for execution like I was. Go back to your friends. I may or may not be back. I don't know. Look every night at the sunset for a smoke ring at this gate. If there is we can talk, if not, I am either training or Phobius is hiding me from suspicious eyes. Good bye Crow." Without another word, Rem spread his wings and took to the sky, his black scaled blending into the night.

Crow watched mournfully as Rem flew off into the sky, before tying the cloth around his arm once more. He didn't know how to feel, about Rem...or Phobius. Crow had always thought that if Rem ever came back, that everything would be fixed, that things would get better for both of them, but now he could see that that was just some fantasy he had been holding onto for too long. His eyes dull and his wings tired, he decided to walk back towards the Hideout. As he entered the gate, the guards at the watch gave him suspicious looks, but luckily did not question him. Their eyes followed him into the city and he quickened his pace, ducking into the first ally way he spotted. Crow stood there for a second and caught his breath, before turning around and running straight into another dragon, who pushed him down onto the ground. He winced and looked up at them, and his eyes widened in shock as he realized who they were, Lycan. Lycan was the leader of a rival group, one of the largest in the city, and he had just run into him. The Lightning dragon snarled and a few of his cronies appeared behind him, all of them glaring at him. Crow got quickly to his feet and backed away, tossing a few of his coins down before the gang leader. Although the dragon was not much older that Crow, he was huge, and very intimidating. A long scar ran across his dull, golden scales, but he didn't even look at the money. "You're the Crow, aren't you? My boys here tell me you've stolen from our loot before, haven't you?" he said with a snarl, and Crow's eyes widened in shock "No! I've never stolen from any of the groups!" he insisted, and it was true, but the goons behind their leader smirked wickedly as the large Lightning dragon advanced. Crow backed up even further, and almost made it out of the ally way before he was suddenly grabbed by the Lightning Dragon and pinned to the wall. "I don't like you, Crow...ah...now I remember why. You're one of The Rats, part of Reya's groups, aint ya? Now if you haven't stolen from me, she has. And I think it's about time she paid for her crimes, isn't that right boys?" he said with a laugh. Crow struggled against the Lightning Dragons grip, but the older dragon held him firmly against the wall, driving his scales into the stone. Lycan moved one of his paws to grip Crow's neck, and started to sink his talons into it.

The Fear Dragon tried to scream for help, but was quickly silenced. "Don't think that I'll let you bring the guards in here, I know that they'd be happy to arrest you just as much as me!" he snarled and squeezed tighter, cutting off Crows air supply. The goons laughed mercilessly and Crow could feel himself losing consciousness. He was going to die...he was going to die! A fear unlike anything Crow had ever known suddenly welled up inside him and he grabbed onto Lycan's arm. The Lightning Dragon gazed at him in confusion for a moment, but his eyes widened in surprise as the shadows around Crow seemed to gather and swirl around the young dragon. "What-what's happening to him?" asked one of Lycan's goons, but before their leader could answer, a blast of red and black energy threw him into the opposite wall, and sent the others shooting out into the streets. "GET AWAY FROM ME!" screamed Crow as wave after wave of energy shot out of him, ripping the houses nearby apart and sending the citizens who got hit by the waves into a full-fledged frenzy. Screams of fear and agony rang through the streets, and the guards of the wall rushed into the ally way, to find a small, black dragon crouched against the remains of a wall, his wings pulled tightly around him as he pressed against the stone.

"What happened here?" asked one of the guards in shock while another leaned down beside the youngster. "Did you see who did this?" he asked, but cried out in shock as red energy seemed to swirl around the young dragon. "Me." said Crow quietly before he opened his jaws and screamed. His cry seemed to drive the guards insane, and they covered their ears in an attempt to escape the noise. Soon enough, Crow found himself alone in the destroyed ally way, the screams of the tormented souls ringing in his ears as fire burned around him, and he was reminded of his village, how it had burned to the ground after the attackers. With a snarl, he turned around and rushed back towards the hideout. His eyes a glaring red.

"Crow? Is that you? By the Gods, what happened out there? We could hear screaming and fire is burning in the distance, do you know what happened?" the young ones pestered the Fear Dragon with questions as he entered the burnt out building, but the black scaled dragon ignored them as he flew up to the second level, where Reya and the twins were talking quietly. "Crow? Do you know what's going on out there?" she asked with concern but her eyes widened when she realized what state he was in. Blood spilled from his mouth as he collapsed to the ground in exhaustion. Ty and Lee leapt up and rushed over to him while Reya looked from the burning city outside to the collapsed dragon before him. "He did this...I don't know how but he did. They're going to come looking for him..." she was silent for a moment but then looked up again "We have to get him out of here." Ty and Lee pointed towards his wounds and Reya bit her lip. "Alright, well he can stay until he's healed...but then we have to move. This place isn't safe anymore. Lea!" she called and leaned over the floorboards in order to address the young Anthro wolf below "I need you to get some medical supplies for Crow, take this coin, and be back as soon as you can! Don't tell anyone who you are buying the medicine for, do you understand?" she asked firmly and the young wolf nodded before catching the money and darting out the door. Reya walked back over towards Crow and helped the twins move him onto his bed. "What happened out there?" she whispered again.

Despite the medicine Lea had managed to buy, Crow still showed no sign of recovery the next morning. Ty and Lee refused to leave his side, but Reya knew that he needed stronger medicine, and they just didn't have the money to get it. Not to mention it would be almost impossible to steal. After Crow's fever took a turn for the worse the next day, the young Fire Dragoness knew that she would have to get help, or Crow would die. But where could she go? There were a few local healers that might be able to do some good, but they couldn't be trusted, if they saw Crow's mark...they would turn him in for the bounty on his head. Not to mention she didn't even know what he was suffering from!

She left the hideout and scouted the city, desperately thinking about who she could ask. Her eyes glanced over towards the academy and an idea popped into her head. If anyone would know what ailed Crow, it would be the Guardians, the great protectors and teachers of Warfang. Crow had mentioned in passing that he had spent some time there, and that most of the Guardians were against him, but a few of them had been friendly, if she could find one that was willing to help...she had to try. Without a second longer hesitation she shot towards the Academy, her strong wings beating against the air as the fire dragoness weaved her way through the morning traffic of dragons, harpies and other winged creatures that preferred to use the skies rather than the streets. Soon enough she landed on the Academy steps and straightened up, trying to wipe some of the dirt off her scales and look at least semi-presentable, before striding confidently into the gigantic building.

At first, she was unsure about where to go, but after following the main hallway, and avoiding some confused looks, she found the hallway of the guardians. A giant statue took up most of the room and the guardians were placed around it, teaching their students. It seemed...calm. An emotion far from what Crow had described it at. The guardians were almost overwhelming to Reya, they were huge, and carried a very ancient and commanding presence. Her eyes moved from one to the other as she hovered near the entrance to the hall, until they finally fell upon a dark scaled dragon that looked a lot like Crow. Perhaps he was of the same element? He would defiantly know what was wrong with Crow if that was the case. Luckily, he wasn't surrounded by students and was merely reading a large tomb, a distracted look was over his face and he kept looking out of the large window that gave a spectacular view of the city and the mountains and fields beyond. Hesitantly, Reya walked over to him and cleared her throat "Um, excuse me?" she said quietly, not wanting to disturb the other students around her. The black scaled dragon blinked and looked down towards her, his eyes questioning, but not aggressive. "Yes, my child? If you are seeking guidance in the art of Fire, you should speak to Infurnus...but something tells me you are not a student here?" he asked with a slight smile, and Reya couldn't help smiling back. "No, I'm not a student...I was hoping you could answer a question I had?" she asked and the Guardian nodded his large head slowly "Ask away, and I will try to answer it." "Alright well...I was wondering, if a Dragon became ill...like had a fever, and showed extreme signs of exhaustion...oh and damage to the throat as well, what could have caused it?" she asked, trying to make it sound academic. Phobius frowned "An odd question from one so young, and rather...specific. Those symptoms occur when a dragon uses a breath technique that is too advanced for him or her, they commonly sustain damage to the throat and suffer from fatigue. To have a fever along with these symptoms is rare, but I suppose it could occur in a dragon if they are untreated for the damage they sustained earlier...are you alright?" he asked, for the young dragons eyes had widened in shock as he spoke.

Reya shook her head "Oh, I'm fine I just...that is very interesting. What kind of medicine would a dragon need if they were...exhibiting such symptoms?" she asked, her voice slightly desperate and Phobius frowned. "Is someone hurt?" he asked seriously, but Reya shook her head violently "No, no, I just...want to know." Phobius sighed and sat back. "Well, they would need to go to a healer, there isn't really any common medicine strong enough to deal with that level of illness, and I am no professional in the lore of medicine." he said with a frown, and looked out the window again. The fire that had occurred near the gate of the city last night left faint trails of smoke, rising up from the ground, and Phobius's eyes widened in realization before he turned around, but the young dragon was gone. He looked around frantically, but the fire dragoness was nowhere to be seen.

With a silent curse, he opened his tome again roughly and began to read. Outside, Reya pressed herself against the walls of the hallway as she desperately thought about what she could do. Crow needed a healer, there really was no medicine that could help him, but that mark...if anyone saw it! She closed her eyes and let out a shuddering breath as she realized what had to be done. With a heavy heart, Reya flew back to the hideout, the younger wolves and dragons were playing outside in the street and they all waved at Reya when she returned, but their smiles fell as they saw her morbid face. "Is something wrong Reya?" they asked but she shook her head and smiled. "Now, listen to me, all of you, I want you to stay outside, until I tell you you can come back in alright? And no matter what you hear, don't come in. Is that understood?" she asked quietly. The children looked at each other in confusion and apprehension before nodding. "Good." she said and went inside to join Ty and Lee, who were both beside Crow, giving him water and what was left of the medicine Lea had brought.

"There is no other choice, we have to take him to a Healer." said Reya as she rummaged through her belongings. Lee gestured towards Crow's shoulder with a concerned look on his face, and his twin gazed at Reya in confusion as she brought her carving knife over towards the two of them. "I know. If Crow is going to get the help he needs, he cannot have that mark on his shoulder. The law won't turn him away as long as he is one of us, but they will turn him in if they find out he's an Easterling...I need the two of you...to hold him down. Please." she said calmly and the twins looked at each other in fear before doing as she said and holding onto Crow tightly. Outside, Crows screams could be heard by the younger members of Reya's gang.

After what seemed to be a long time, Reya exited the building, along with the twins who were supporting Crow as they made their way towards one of the healers. Blood dripped down from his shoulder which had been carved up to the point where you could no longer see his Eastern Marking. "It's going to be okay now, Crow...please forgive us..." whispered Ty into his friends ear. Lee looked straight ahead, his eyes glazed over from what he had witnessed.

Rem watched the valley and he sat perched high in the mountains, awaiting the return of the fear guardian. He had been told to stay at the estate after Phobius had seen his wounded leg, which now sat wrapped in a snow white bandaging, stained red where the cougar had clawed and bit into him. As the sun began to set, the large form of the fear guardian appeared on the edge of the valley, gliding lazily on the rising air currents that swirled in the quiet mountains. Spreading his wings large black wings, Rem leapt from his favourite perch and angled his wings to meet his mentor at the front entrance. A smile spread on his face as the fire dragon landed, eager to know about the news from the city, but as he saw the grim expression on the fear guardian's face, Rem's own smile faded and his wings pressed against his side a bit in worry.

As the guardian landed heavily in front of him, Rem instantly was at his mentor's side. "What is wrong, Master Phobius?" asked the fire dragon and he walked with the adult into the estate and stopping in the common area. Phobius sat and faced the young fire dragon with sad eyes. "I had just returned from the healer's office. It seems that your friend Crow was the cause of the damage in the city. He used a much to advanced attack for his age and his body could not handle it. When I was inspecting his body, I also noticed... that someone had carved out his eastern symbol." Rem was in shock as he heard the first half of the news, but a deep growl escaped his throat when he heard about Crow's markings. Not only was it a disrespect to their own culture, but it also served as the only connection between their roots, but also it was the only thing that connected the two friends. Phobius attempted to calm the male down by placing a soft wing over his back, but Rem just shrugged it off and took off back to his perch above the estate. The young dragon's roars of rage could be heard echoing through the valley as he blew strong waves of fire into the air, allowing his anger to be burnt out. But as he was doing so, something changed inside the male.

His eyes started to glow a bright white and small white wisps of smoke encircled his body. The next roar came out in a distorted voice, sounding as if five dragons were talking at once. The black dragon roared one last time and spread his wings and before Phobius could stop him, took off towards the city. Only one thought was on the dragon's mind... revenge. He would get revenge on those who injured and disrespected his only friend. Landing in the main market, Rem roared as loud as he could and shot a beam of white light into the air. The crowd screamed and began to disperse from the angered dragon as he made his way through the city in search of both Crow and the ones who injured him. "Where is he!" roared the black dragon to the crowd. The male walked up to a random guard and lifted him by his neck, rising on his hind legs to lift the dragon. "Where is the healer?"


	5. Chapter 5

Fall of the East: Chapter 5

Reya rushed through the city streets, skidding to a halt in front of the healers home, out of breath and exhausted from the run. "Sheska! Sheska, where is he?" she gasped as the young Fire Dragoness stumbled into the healers home. The elderly healer looked up from her cracked and dusty tombs and pointed a frail claw towards a sheet that obscured Crow from view. The old Anthro Wolf pressed a finger to her lips before rising from her cushion. "Why have you come, I told you that he would need several days of treatment before he would be able to wake up." she said quietly, her voice brittle and cracked with age, but Reya shook her head frantically. "Something is terribly wrong, a crazed dragon is attacking the city right now, tearing through the guards and demanding to know where Crow is! I saw him myself...he looked, almost possessed. I think he might be one of the dragons that attacked Crow's village!" she whispered, pulling back the curtain to reveal Crow's sleeping form.

The wound on his shoulder had been bandaged, but dark spots marked the amount of blood that was still seeping from the cuts she had made. With a quavering intake of breath, she looked desperately over towards the old healer. "Is there anywhere you could hide him? I...I'll give you this if you'll help me." she said and held out a few more coins, the last she had. The Wolf quickly grabbed the money out of the young dragons paws and inspected it carefully before tucking it away in a small bag that hung around her waist. "Very well, we can hide him below, in my storage room." she said and with a grunt pulled up a trapdoor that had been hidden under a carpet. Outside, screams and shouts could be heard growing ever closer, and Sheska gestured with her paw for Reya to take Crow downstairs. Carefully picking up the young Fear Dragon, Reya managed to drag him down into the musty cellar below. "It's best if you stay down their with him, I'll keep watch from above." said Sheska quietly before shutting the trapdoor and covering it with the carpet once more. Beneath the floorboards, Reya quickly lit a small flame so that she could see and lay Crow down onto the damp floor. His face seemed troubled, as if he was having some sort of nightmare, and Reya laid a paw gently on his forehead. "It's going to be okay, Crow." she whispered, and put out the light.

Rem padded his way through the streets of the city. The guard was very descriptive of where the young dragon was being held. Anyone who opposed the vengeance filled dragon soon found out his power and quickly fell before him. Spotting the sign for the healer's den, Rem barged inside to see the old wolf standing with a shocked expression. With his teeth bared, Rem stepped forward. "Where is he?" asked the raged dragon in his distorted voice. "And do not lie to me, old wolf. I am not afraid to go through you as well to get to my friend who I see as a brother!" he roared, causing the old wolf to stumble back and slip on the carpet, revealing the trap door. Smiling, the out of control dragon blasted away the door and jumped down. His white wisps lit up the musky storage room. As he spotted the two on the far side, the old wolf jumped down and drove a sword into the dragon's back. Snarling, Rem ripped the sword out and tossed it back at the old wolf, skewering him. Turning back to Reya and Crow, Rem's eyes grew bright. "Get away from my friend."

As the trapdoor was blasted apart, Reya screamed and shielded Crow with her wings while she hid her head behind her paws, peering up, she saw as the crazed dragon leered down towards them, white wisps of energy swirling around him as his eyes glowed, and it took all of strength not to simply faint in sheer horror. Her eyes widened as she saw the healer swing her sword towards the attacker "Sheska! No!" Reya cried out, but it was too late, the crazed dragon impaled the old healer, killing her instantly. The young fire dragons eyes welled with tears, but they quickly disappeared as the attacker rounded on them, his eyes burning with rage. "Get away from my friend" snarled the creature, and Reya blinked in surprise. "You're Rem?" she gasped quietly, and looked from Crow back to him "What do you want with him? I won't let you hurt Crow!" she said warningly, but knew very well that she didn't stand a chance against him. She placed a paw on Crows shoulder and held him firmly, one wing spread over him slightly in a protective manner.

Rem's white glow seemed to fade slightly at the younger female's words. "Hurt...Crow?" he said in a confused tone. "I... I would never hurt my closest friend." he said, Looking around, he saw the dead healer on the wall and his glowing eyes grew wide. "I... I never wanted any of this to happen..." said the male as he wisps grew less bright and soon fluttered out. Walking over to the unconscious fear dragon, tears fell from his eyes, which were still glowing white. Phobius rushed in a few moments later, but sighed as he saw that Rem was mostly under control, sobbing on the young dragon's body.

The Fear Guardian gazed around in shock and horror as he saw the bodies strewn across the streets. Guards were working frantically to put out the fires that had spread throughout the city, and tend to the countless wounded that lay dying in the streets. Flying as fast as he possibly could, he eventually made it to the healers, and burst inside, expecting the worst. It was almost that, but not quite. Rem was crying quietly near Crow's unconscious form, while the young fire dragoness from earlier that day stared in fear from him to the guardian. Phobius's eyes widened as he saw the impaled form of the healer...her name had been Sheska, if he remembered correctly, but now her corpse bleed out over the floorboards. With a shuddering breath, Phobius strode forward and lay a hand on Rems shoulder. "We must leave, now. Once the guards re-assemble they'll come here, looking for you. We've got to take Crow with us as well." he said and made to pick up the unconscious form of Crow. Seeing the young fear dragon again pained him greatly, for Phobius had never been given the chance to apologise for what he did. However, as he reached towards him, the fire dragoness stepped in front of him.

"Wait; let me come with you, please. I've got to make sure he's okay." she insisted, a mistrusting look in her eyes as she glanced from the guardian back to Rem, who was still crying quietly over Crows body. Phobius sighed in frustration and nodded. "Fine, but we have to leave now." he said and picked up Crow, before heading towards the exit. Reya was quick to follow after him, and once they were out on the streets she motioned to the group. "Follow me, I can get us out of the city unnoticed!" she whispered and darted into an alleyway. Phobius frowned slightly but quickly followed suite as a large group of armoured guards rounded the corner. Once in the alleyway, he noticed that the young fire dragoness had been joined by two Anthro-wolves, who glared suspiciously at Phobius, but Reya layed a hand on both their shoulders. "It's okay, he's going to take us somewhere safe, where Crow can heal." she said and after a moment's hesitation, they nodded together. "Wait a second, I never said-!" muttered Phobius indignantly but Reya and the wolves had already shot into another alleyway, and Phobius had to rush to catch up with them, not to mention glance over his shoulder to make sure Rem was still with him. What had happened tonight had caused the Guardian to worry greatly about the fire dragon, what hidden power did he truly possess? Soon enough, the group made it to the city wall, and Reya showed them a narrow passage that Phobius could just barely manage to slip through. Once outside, Reya gave the all clear and the dragons took off into the sky while the wolves followed them from the ground, until at last they reached the estate.

Rem did not enter the guardian's estate however when they returned. Instead, he flew up to his private perch and sat looking over the valley. The images of the burning and panicked city replayed through his mind from when he looked back as they left. Had it really been him that caused so much grief? Had HE caused all that damaged and ruined so many lives of innocent dragons and other species? The thoughts plagued the male's mind and even the thought of diving into the ground crossed his mind once or twice, but he quickly shooed the thought away. With his head resting on the rock and his right legs and tail hanging off the triangle shaped perch. Rem let out a sigh and watched Phobius work on Crow from the glass.

Reya watched from across the room as the Guardian started re-bandaging some of Crow's wounds that had opened up during the move to the estate, his brow was furrowed with worry and Reya could tell that Crow was still in a lot of danger. With a low growl she looked up towards where Rem was outside, her eyes narrowed. If he had never shown up, Crow would have been alright, and now look at what happened! An entire section of the city had been destroyed, and he didn't even look much older than she was! With a sigh, Reya sat down and leaned against the wall of the room, while Ty stayed with her, his arms crossed and his eyes staring blankly into space. Lee, on the other hand, had inched towards Phobius and was no standing right beside him. The Guardian said nothing for a moment and pursed his lips and looked down at the wolf "It would be a lot easier to work if I had some space!" he muttered and Lee quickly walked over to the other side of the table, but didn't move away. The guardian sighed and waved a paw "Fine, that will have to do." he said and reached towards the bloody bandages that covered Crows shoulder. But as he did so, Crow winced and groaned, and his eyes fluttered open.

Phobius quickly backed away and motioned for Reya and Ty to approach, and they obliged without hesitation. "Crow? Are you alright?" asked Reya softly and the twins waved at him from the end of the table. The young Fear Dragon smiled slightly at the sight of his friends and tried to get up, but gasped in pain and fell back. "What...what happened? He said, looking around in confusion." "Well...it's sorta hard to explain..." said Reya cautiously, but suddenly Phobius strode forward. Crow's eyes widened in shock and the others glanced nervously from him to the guardian. "I thought it best that you awoke surrounded by your friends, Crow." he said calmly. "You were injured three days ago when you used your fear element, and while you were being healed in the city...well, Rem found out about your condition and went to find you, but...he...-" "He destroyed half the city trying." finished Reya, closing her eyes for a second as she remembered the chaos that had been caused by Rem's rampage. "After that, neither of you would be safe anywhere within Warfang's walls, so when Phobius offered to bring you here, we had to." added Reya, opening her eyes again. Crow was silent for a while but then nodded slightly, and Phobius smiled in relief. He had been very concerned that the young dragon would over-react and hurt himself even more. "It's alright, Rem explained to me what happened, Phobius...about...before." he said, but winced as he spoke, his throat felt like it was coated in sand, and a searing pain shot through his shoulder. He froze for a second, his shoulder? Slowly, he turned his head to look to his left, and there, a blood soaked bandage covered the entire area. Almost frantically, he started pulling at the cloth, ripping it away. Reya and Phobius tried to stop him, but not before the last of the material fell away to reveal the wound.

His Eastern Mark had been carved away, replaced by a gruesome wound that spread over most of his shoulder. Blood and ripped flesh seemed to mix together in a mess and Crow almost threw up just looking at it. With a slight cry he looked away in disgust and anger. "How did this happen?" he said quietly, clutching the cloth tightly in his hand. "You received it in the fight, Crow. You came back with that wound." said Reya instantly, while the twins and Phobius exchanged uneasy glances. Crow stared resolutely at the celling, his pale white eyes glaring into space. He knew they were lying, someone had done this to him after he had lost consciousness. Because, you see, Crow remembered everything from that night, he had felt the power rushing in his veins, and he had enjoyed it.

_The Temple of Alto_

Alto heard a magical crackle behind him. He recognized the sound and turned around to see the silhouette of a slim figure of a dragoness in the shadows of his chamber.

"Korasi. Nice to see you back" Alto said while he turned around.

Korasi was his best student, prodigy to be more accurate, She never had failed him and was a fast learner and excellent in physical and magical combat.

"I've returned from my reconnaissance, Master." She replied. Her voice was very soothing but a slight, yet still noticeable, feminine rasp in her tone was audible.

She emerged from the shadows of the room to reveal her appearance to Alto once more. She was a black scaled dragon, with a line of white coming from the base of her head which extended across her body and onto the end of her tail. Her wings membranes were a velvety red which matched the color of her slit eyes. What made her unique was a symbol tattooed onto her right shoulder, The Symbol of the Eastern Dragons.

"What have you found out?" Alto asked as soon as soon as her body was fully visible.

"Turns out the two HVT's you have been looking for have been inhabiting the city of Warfang as you predicted." Korasi reported as she took off a pair of smithed claws.

The claws were another feature that made Korasi unique.

Alto had taught her strict Close Quarters Combat attacks and techniques since the beginning of her combat sessions but never found one set of claws enough. Surprised from her young thirst for more power, he personally forged a pair of claws using the sturdiest and most geometrical combined metals to create a devastating weapon; and with honor he presented Korasi with his forge-work.

Korasi dismissed the magical binding on the claws that secured their position on her wrist to prevent it falling off, while the magical binding let her move her wrists freely without something, such as leather, restricting that privilege.

"Good, what have you found out about them?" Alto asked her.

"There seems to be a conflict between the two, not to mention they seem to be causing dismay within the city with the simple fact of their origin." Korasi said, and placed her 'Korasi Claws' in a chest nearby that disappeared as she closed the heavy, wooden lid. Direct Tunneling Chests were one of the most convenient inventions Alto has created. Using the Abyssal realms of which he came from, he was able to transport any type of object through a specifically enchanted storage unit to another of the same aspect assuming the user is careful and remembers to set a destination point.

"Excellent!" Alto exclaims though refrains from becoming too loud, though his enthusiasm seemed to be a little forced anyways.

"We can let them slowly weaken one another, then we can assault the dragon 'Rem' for his mystical ability. Korasi, begin to find the weakness in Rem and that other dragon who followed him to the city."

"Permission to ask a question?" Korasi requested.

"Permission Granted."

"Why should we concern ourselves with the other dragon, he is not of our - your highest priority."

"Never under-estimate the enemy Korasi, they might contain hidden traits and will assist our endeavour, even if they don't know it." It irked Alto that Korasi would ask such an unassuming question, but it was understandable, the young dragoness would never usually ask questions unless it was necessary, and normally, Korasi was very careful about the questions she asked him. After all, he had 'saved' her after the fall of the Eastern lands. She was from the wealthiest dynasty, or families. Her manners were fair and her loyalty could not be out-matched, and that is why Alto could not scold Korasi, as he often did with his other failed students and subjects. He would respect her alone as long as she is respectful and loyal to him.

"Rest Korasi, I will assign a task to you soon. And don't forget to recharge the electricity in your pair of Claws." Alto told her "You might need it."

"Thank you, Master" Korasi responded "I will not forget" And she slunk back into the shadows.

_Warfang_

Rem only returned the estate to bandage his injured leg after he realized in his darker side had burnt it clean off. This is also when he first realized the stab wound in his back and wrapped a few bandages to cover the wound. When he finished, he snuck back out of the estate and flew back up to his perch. As the sun entered the valley, the orange sun reflected off of his deep black scales, but also revealed the great contrast between the white bandages and his black scales. Sighing at the sun warmed his body; the fire dragon looked down towards the estate, debating whether or not to head down. Shaking his head to the idea for the moment, Rem flew out into the valley and swiftly lifted a buck into the air, snapping its neck in his powerful jaws before sitting down for his morning meal. After he finished, the male burnt the remains so that not predators would be drawn to the scent of the dead animal. Spreading his large wings, he rode the warm air currents up to his perch, digging his talons on all four legs into the rock to catch himself before allowing all four legs and his wings to dangle off the edge of the triangle shaped rock outcropping and his head to sit on the tip. Closing his eyes, the male teenaged fire dragon closed his eyes and relaxed, the warm sun aiding in his own way of recovering from his physical and mental injuries.

As the sun rose in the distance, Phobius finally finished tending to Crows wounds and made for the door. "You're leaving?" asked Reya in confusion, Crow was far from healed, he still needed medical attention! Phobius paused at the door as he collected a few of his things. "Crow will be fine until I return later this afternoon. While looking after Rem in my spare time, I also have the duties of the Guardian, and if I do not attend the Academy, the other Guardians will become more suspicious than they already am. I told them that I only took Rem's body to give him a proper burial, and it took a full month to convince them that I wasn't lying. Now, after last night's fiasco, their suspicion will be targeted directly on me. If I wish not to lead them back here straight to Rem and Crow, I must continue my duties as a Guardian as if nothing had happened." he explained calmly and left before Reya could protest any further. It pained him to leave Crow in such a state, and he knew that Rem was suffering from something worse than wounds, but they would just have to wait for him to return. Over the past four months, he had come to care about the eastern fire dragon more than he would care to admit, and wasn't about to let his emotions jeopardize Rem and Crow just because he wanted to stay behind. With a sigh, he spread his wings and flew into the City.

On his way to the academy, in the full light of day, Phobius could see the full extent of Rem's antics from last night. Much of the fire had been doused, but the damage was extensive, leading all the way from the main city gate and ending on the healers street, near the edge. The building still smouldered, a faint trial of smoke weaving its way through the air as a signal to all of what had transpired. When he touched down in the Academy, the entire building seemed to be buzzing with gossip about the demonic creature that had caused the damage last night, and Phobius tried to keep his expressions from betraying his thoughts. After entering the main hall, he walked slowly towards his place with his head down, in hopes of avoiding notice, but to no avail. "PHOBIUS!" shouted Infurnus, his red eyes burning as he marched straight over towards the Fear Guardian, whilst Reuel waited patiently behind him, his cold, calculating eyes boring into him. The Fear Guardian's eyes widened in surprise, but he said nothing, and waited for Infurnus to continue, which the Fire Guardian did, spit flying from his mouth as he snarled "Where in the nine rings of Hell were you last night? It was a disaster, some demon caused massive amounts of damage in the southern side of the city, it took almost all of the Guardians to help with damage control!" Phobius mentally sighed in relief that they had not made the connection between Rem and last night's incident before relaying his cover story "I'm sorry, I heard about the attack only this morning when I arrived, I had gone back to my estate long before this "demon" appeared." he said smoothly.

Infurnus glared at him before marching away, muttering darkly. Reuel, however, stepped forward. Ever since Phobius had unleashed his fear attack, leaving the Air Guardian deaf in one year, the two had been on rather icy footing. "I think it rather strange, that this attack should occur so soon after your second little Easterling was spotted just days ago, Phobius. One might even start to believe there was some sort of connection between the two!" he said silkily, his pale eyes twinkling with conspiracy. "I don't know what you're talking about, Reuel." muttered Phobius and he pushed past him, walking towards his section where a few of his students waited for him. However Reuel wasn't swayed. "I do my homework too, Phobius. One of the Guards told me that the Demon asked specifically for the location of a healers, so I decided to visit this place myself." he said quietly, and Phobius tried very hard not to react, and simply started flicking through one of his books. "Well, as you can imagine the place was in ruins, the healer was also dead. Some sort of magic had been used on her to help heal the old Wolf, but at her age? She had a heart attack and died almost immediately! So that was a dead end." drawled Reuel, a slight smile appearing on his face as he realized Phobius wasn't actually reading and hanging onto his every word. "But I wasn't swayed. I went to ask some of the neighbouring citizens who lived around the healer what they could tell me, and do you know what I found out?" he said, his voice dead quiet. "One of them told me...that a young, black scaled dragon had been admitted there the day after the Easterling was discovered." he whispered, and Phobius shut the book his was reading and looked up at the Air Guardian. "Now…why would the Demon, be so interested in taking this young Eastern Dragon with him? Because he wasn't there when I arrived, and from what those citizens told me, he was in no fit condition to just get up and walk away. You know what I think? I think, that the Eastern Dragon we executed last year didn't die. In fact, I think that he was in this very city mere hours ago. And I also think that you helped both of the Easterlings escape last night. Do you know why?" he asked, his voice dripping with malice. "Why." said Phobius, his voice just as deadly as Reuel's. The Air Dragon leaned closer towards him, so that their faces were just inches from one another. "Because that same citizen that told me all those things...also saw you, helping the Demon and his friend, escape."

Phobius glared at Reuel for a split second before he chuckled and closed the book he had been reading. "Really, Reuel, I knew that you were paranoid about the Easterlings, but to go so far as to accuse me of aiding this...creature that attacked our beloved city? You go too far. You shouldn't trust everything you hear, my friend." said the Fear dragon evenly before he began walking over towards his area of study. Reuel glared after him, rage plain in his eyes. "This isn't over, Phobius, as soon as I tell the others-" "Tell them what?" Phobius interrupted "that some citizen told you that he saw me helping this attacker? Everyone knows that you hate me, they won't believe you, and for good reason, because it isn't true." Reuel stared after him, mouth gaping open as he tried to come up with some sort of witty response and Phobius grinned "Silver tongue turned to lead? Well, if you are done patronizing me, I'll get back to teaching." he said and turned away from the Air Dragon, who stormed out of the room in a rage shortly after.

As soon as he was out of the main hallway, Reuel was suddenly grabbed and pulled into a spare room. "Hey! What in -" he was cut off as Infurnus roughly placed a paw over his mouth "Will you shut it?" he snapped, letting him go and turning to face the other guardians that had gathered there. "What is going on...and why are we in a broom closet?"

"It's not a broom closet!" hissed Infurnus as he shoved a mop out of the way to make room for the Air Guardian. "Look, we all want to know if you were able to glean anything off of Phobius." he continued as Reuel laughed quietly before speaking. "He won't budge in his story that he was at his estate when this happened, but my sources placed him at the scene of the crime the night it occurred. I think that the Demon who attacked our city was none other than that Easterling we tried to execute four months ago."

"Don't be ridiculous, Reuel, he was shot dead with the Executioners crossbow! No criminal has ever survived it!" scoffed another, but Reuel shook his head,

"Phobius took him away before we could check to make sure he was dead. He must have been nursing him back to health until now." The rest were quiet as they mulled over this news, until Infernus finally spoke.

"If he really did help the Eastern dragon recover, and then aid him in escaping with that Easterling child...Phobius should pay for his crimes against this city. The other Guardians were able to overlook his dealings with the Easterlings before, but what transpired last night was unforgivable. We must destroy those Eastern Dragons once and for all, along with their Guardian." he said quietly, and the group nodded uneasily. "Arresting a Guardian will not be easy, not to mention we don't know where he is hiding the Eastern Dragons." said another, but Reuel held up a paw "Don't worry about that, the only place he could possibly hide them is on his estate, and that is where we will strike. It is out of the city, far away from prying eyes. We will take them all by surprise and have them brought to justice, neither the Earth or Ice Guardian will be able to intervene in the light of their sins this time." he said with a hiss, and the others smiled wickedly. Infurnus stumbled over a bucket as he reached for the door "We will talk more of this later, for now, act as if nothing has changed." he muttered and left, while the others filed out behind him and went about their usual tasks.

_The Estate_

"Reya...Reya? Ty, Lee?" called out Crow as he woke to find himself in an empty room. The walls were a deep red and the floorboards were worn with age as he got up from his head and walked over to the door that led out to the main hallway. As he approached it, he winced and held onto his shoulder, just before the door flung open and both Reya and the Twins tumbled inside. "I told you it opened the other way you idiots!" laughed Reya as she picked herself off the ground. "Crow! You're awake!" she said in surprise, as the young Fear Dragon blinked in confusion. The Fire Dragoness smiled in relief and helped Ty to his feet; Lee was already dusting himself off, a sour expression on his face.

"Phobius said that you were still pretty hurt, you should probably lie back down, we were just looking around, this place is huge! It has lots of rooms and stuff..." she trailed off as she noticed Crows expression, which had gone from mildly amused to depressed. "Crow? Is everything alright?" she asked gently as the Fear Dragon sat down on the bed again. He sighed and placed his hand on his shoulder once more. "My shoulder...it hasn't healed yet. My mark of the Eastern Country is gone forever. I didn't think that I cared about it that much, but it was part of who I am...and now it's gone." he added, his voice slightly hoarse, and Reya looked to the twins with concern before she sat beside him. "It's still pretty early, Crow, it might heal again one day." Reya said encouragingly, but Crow shook his head. "You saw how deep that wound was, it will scar for life" he said bitterly, and the room fell into a morbid silence for a few seconds before Lee walked forward and held out his paw, his eyes looking at Crow with meaning and the young dragon sighed and let the wolf help him to his feet, before following him out the door.

Ty and Reya got to their feet and rushed after the two of them "Lee! What are you doing, you know that Crow isn't supposed to be out of bed!" she insisted, but Lee looked back at her shrugged, while Crow smiled slightly and walked beside his wolven friend, following him outside. The air was cool and crisp, anything but the air that they had lived with in the slums of the city, and Crow laughed as he tumbled through the thick grass that grew throughout that field that surrounded the estate. Seeing how much his spirit had soared just by getting out of that jail of a room, Reya nodded in thanks towards Lee before rushing towards him and sending him flying a couple of feet. The wolf howled and Ty quickly jumped into the fray, landing squarely on Reya's back and trying to pin her while Lee rushed back to help his twin. Crow laughed as the three scuffled over the field, sending dust flying everywhere, and lay down in the grass, gazing up at the clouds as they soared high above him, their colours of white and gold as the sun began to sink. Things seemed peaceful here, despite the odd howl and roar from the three as they continued to fight nearby.

Suddenly, the wind seemed to pick up and Crow looked over to see Phobius approaching, his giant wings beating heavily against the air. Reya finally shouted out in triumph as she pinned both of the twins down, but quickly let them up as she spotted the Guardian, and the three walked over to where Crow was. Just meters away, Phobius touched down in front of them, his face in a frown. "What is he doing out of bed, don't you realize what a serious condition you are still in?" he asked, his voice full of concern. "I'm sorry Sir, he wasn't really doing much, just getting some fresh air..." said Reya quietly but Phobius cut her off "Not another word, get inside now, Crow." he said seriously and gestured towards the estate. Crow didn't meet his gaze and slunk slowly back into the house, holding onto his shoulder as he made his way back inside. "As for the rest of you, I know that Crow enjoys having you here, but I really think you should go back to the city." muttered the Fear Guardian amid the cries out outrage, mostly coming from Reya while the twins merely glared at Phobius. "You can't make us leave, Crow needs us!" Reya insisted. "I am the only one who is supposed to be living here, having all of you here, along with Rem and Crow just makes it more likely that I will be discovered as a traitor! If you really care about Crow's wellbeing, you'll go back." said the Guardian firmly, and Reya bit her lip. However, her eyes widened as Lee strode forward until he was directly in front of the Guardian. "They we'll stay inside, and we won't get in your way. Please...let us stay." said the Anthro Wolf clearly, and Ty gazed at his twin in shock.

Phobius too seemed taken aback by the wolfs sudden outburst, and reconsidered his stand. "Alright, fine. But as long as you stay inside where you won't be seen." he said quietly and swept around, his wings trailing after him like a cape. Reya followed quickly after, giving Lee a wink as she passed, but as the wolf started to head towards the estate, he noticed that Ty was still staring at him. Lee sighed and walked back to his twin, and took his paw, leading him back inside despite the wolfs silent protest. As he shut the door behind him, Lee couldn't help but notice the outline of dragons in the distance, and quickly disappeared inside, his face etched into a frown.

Rem sat upon his perch quietly as he peered down to the estate. Spotting Crow outside relaxing placed a slight smile on his face. His mind was still plagued by the memories of the burning city and the screams of the wounded. That previous night, the young fire dragon started to view small flashbacks to when he was in his uncontrolled state. He had never felt that angry towards a single dragon or a small group before and something inside of him just snapped. There was one crucial piece to the event though that bothered him the most. He enjoyed it. He enjoyed having the power to cut down anyone in his path. He enjoyed watching the westerns suffer in their own city at his paws. He even enjoyed skewering the healer! The young black dragon shook his head to attempt to shake himself from his dark thoughts. Was this power inside of him evil? Was HE supposed to be evil? Rem snarled and clawed at his perch. No! He was a kind dragon! Sure he had a bit of a temper at times but all he wanted to do was help, not harm! Phobius even said he was turning out to be a fine young dragon! What would the fear guardian think of him now after he tore apart half of the city? Growling, the black dragon placed his head on his paws and looked out into the distance. Lifting and tilting his head, Rem looked closer to see that there was a group of ten to twelve... dragons flying their way! Leaping off of the perch, Rem landed roughly in the courtyard where Phobius was sitting reading a book and looked to his mentor with a panicked expression. "Master! We're under attack!"


	6. Chapter 6

Fall of the East: Chapter 6

_The Temple of Alto_

Korasi retreated to her sleeping quarters, having to be on reconnaissance for a few days definitely was something she was not use to. Being stealthy and gathering information on just two dragons within a large city was an achievement considering the fact that Alto has never taught her stealth yet. None-the-less Alto seemed to be satisfied with his information and a brief nap was in order. Because she was from royalty in the eastern lands, hygiene was a crucial factor in her life and was told to wash and bathe before sleeping.

She went to the nearby pool of water and was about to enter it but was stopped by her own reflection; It has been a while since she saw her own visage. The two spikes that came out of the sides of her head, respectfully, were straight and were usually white as ivory if dirt did not stain in. Four smaller spikes the size of talons were on the back of her head, two on the left side and two on the right and to beak for the mouth to finish her facial appearance. Treating her reflection as if it was new for she has not seen her visage for a while plus she felt she was a different dragon since Rem and his friend, attacked her home. Alto told her strictly that they were traitors to the eastern land and there was no reason to not believe him, he did save her after all. It was a shame he couldn't save the rest of her family that she loved dearly, but there is no time to mourn for the dead and only time to seek revenge on the traitors.

"I'm different now." She told herself and sank into the water.

Alto stood near a Scrying pool. He was staring in and trying to focus since scrying was a difficult task to do since it both drains physical and magical energy.

He was looking at the partially burning city of Warfang.

"They are just making it easy for me." Alto said in disbelief but inside he was still quite happy.

The more the dragons destroy the cities defenses, the easier it will be. However he did make it more difficult for himself as destroying the Eastern Lands only made them flee causing him to destroy an entire culture of dragons just to let his target run into one of the heavily defended city of the Western Lands. He broke off the connection between himself and the scrying pool, his energy was faltering. Alto thought a little more about the strengths between the Western Lands and Eastern Lands.

If two Eastern dragons were capable of gaining access to a Western capitol and were able to decimate nearly half of it, then what can a whole army of Western dragons do? Alto released a groan at the thought of how powerful an army of Eastern Dragons could have been. Regret and guilt was shown across his face, the killing was wrong but if he was to secure a new realm for his master's Abysmal Legions then he would have to do everything in his power to do so. His home realm was faltering through nuclear erosion and this realm seemed to be capable of containing Abysmal creatures for a few millenniums.

His thoughts again made him clench his fist in frustration, he needed Rem's White Power as soon as possible! The Abysmal realm would falter in a few months. It's a shame the Abysmal Realm can only send only one 'Tribute' at a time, unless he gets the White Power to make the Abysmal Realm more stable.

What can he do? He was only one dragon.

"No… I have Korasi." He retaliated to himself. "I will need to teach her so many things…and soon " Alto let out a frustrated sigh. He has been pushing Korasi's skills and learning pace to the limit the past few weeks, but he could not avoid the fact that time was running out. But with her help and once they both get the White Power, he can summon a Destructive Golem and open a portal between this realm and the Abysmal realm.

But as of now, he would have to wait and let the two Eastern Dragons destroy as much as possible in the city of Warfang before he should attacked the city himself.

"With what army though..?" Alto asked himself and rolled out a region map. He scanned the other civilizations. He could ask for assistance from the Southern Dragons and lie to them as he lied to Korasi and motivate them to go after Rem and his friend. Not a bad idea.

Alto finally decided he would have to train Korasi in her Fear element soon so they can both manipulate the Southern Dragons, not to mention she also needs to train a little more with close quarters combat anyways. Korasi is resting he guessed and decided to organize a training session with her for later.

"I only have months left, it's time to make it count." he told himself.

_The Estate_

Phobius dropped the book he was reading to the ground and got to his feet, eyes wide with fear and shock. He froze only for a moment however, before he placed a hand on Rem's shoulder and guided him back inside. "You must take the others and hide, there is not a moment to lose, if you are discovered my betrayal will have proof and I will be executed, along with you, and Crow." He said quickly and opened the door to Crows room. The four friends had been chatting quietly, but the smiles on their faces disappeared as Phobius and Rem burst into the room. "You must come with me, now." said the Fear Guardian seriously and the twins leapt to their feet while Reya helped Crow get out of bed. 'Why? What's going on?" she asked in confusions, but everyone looked up to the ceiling in surprise as a heavy thud resounded through the estate. "They're here!" hissed Phobius and rushed out of the room, the others running behind him. The Guardian came to a sudden stop and pulled down on a carved piece of wood in the shape of an eagle that rested on the side of the wall, revealing a hidden door that opened up into the wall. Beyond lay a stone passage that led down into the ground below. "Inside, quickly!" hissed Phobius, and started to shut the door as a loud banging resounded from the front door. However, Crow stopped and turned around, placing a paw on the door "Wait...Phobius, please don't do this, come with us!" he said desperately, but the Fear Guardian shook his head, and placed a paw on the young dragons shoulder. "I'm sorry for what I did, Crow. Perhaps this way I will be able to make up for my sins." he said quietly, and tears started to form in the young dragons eyes at his words. The banging grew louder and Phobius tried to smile encouragingly "Reya, look after him, the passage leads down into the ground and outside into the forest. Don't come back here unless you are sure it's safe." he said seriously and Reya gently led Crow away "Come on Crow, it's going to be alright..." she said and they vanished into the gloom.

The Fear Guardian looked down the dark hallway one last time before he closed the secret passage, the door melding seamlessly with the wall as the carving slid back into place, and not a moment too soon. With a crash, the main doorway was blown to pieces and at least a dozen dragons stormed the estate. Phobius quickly moved away from the entrance into the main hall, where he was immediately arrested. Infernus and Reuel stood over him, smug grins on their faces as he was chained and forced to the ground. "At long last." hissed Infurnus "I always knew you couldn't be trusted, Phobius, and now we have you. Search the estate! I want every room checked, we are not leaving this place without them, if we have to burn it to the ground to ensure the death of the Easterlings so be it!" he growled and the other dragons instantly split up. Phobius was silent as he knelt of the ground, his paws and wings tied together. "You won't find them." he said quietly, but Reuel slapped him across the face "I wouldn't say anything if I were you" he hissed as blood dripped from the Fear Guardians mouth "You've already proved yourself to be treacherous before, and anything you say will be used against you in your trial." spat the Air Guardian, while Infernus looked on with malice.

After a while, one of the dragons returned "We've searched the entire estate, but there was no sign of them...however, we did find this..." and the dragon held up some bandages that were stained with blood. Infurnus grabbed them and held them up to the light. "Odd that you would be sporting such an object when you bear no wounds yourself. You have been harbouring the Easterlings here, Phobius, there is no mistake about that. We will find them, no matter what it takes." he said bluntly and stored the bloody cloth away, before leaning towards the Fear Dragon "But you do not have to pay for your crimes, Phobius..." and held up a paw before Reuel could interrupt him. The Fear Guardian did not look up from the ground; he knew what was coming next. "Tell us where they are, and I will ensure that your life is spared. Surely the lives of two foreigners do not mean that much to you...?" spoke the Fire Guardian, his voice quiet, but a fierce snarl came from Phobius as he looked up to him "I would rather die a thousand deaths, than have those children fall into your hands." he growled and spat at the Fire Guardian, hitting him in the eye. Infernus snarled and backed away "I'll teach you to treat me with such disrespect!" he roared and punched the Fear Guardian in the face, sending him spiraling away and slamming into the wall behind him. Infurnus continued to breath heavily, and Reuel had to hold him back "Stop it Infurnus, you're giving him what he wants! We'll never get their location if he dies." he hissed in his ear, and the Fire Dragon calmed down. "Very well. Take the traitor outside, I'll finish up in here." he said quietly and glared at Phobius as the Fear Guardian was dragged out of the front entrance. The last thing Phobius saw before he blacked out was Infernus igniting the entire estate, and sending it up in flames.

Rem watched silently as the small group made their way through the dark tunnel, but did not enter himself. Instead he slipped into the rafters and sat in quiet wait for the guards to sweep through. His black scales allowed him to blend into the shadows easily and when they left, listened to the conversation between the two guardians. As he watched the fire guardian strike his mentor, Rem's anger flashed once more and his eyes glowed a slight white. The anger and bloodlust he had felt earlier started to rise in him, but this time he seemed to have more control.. Feeling the elemental powers of the elder fire dragon starting to rise, Rem allowed his power to take over and crouched. "I wouldn't do that if I were you." growled the black scaled dragon as he watched the guardian open his maw. The elder spun around in shock and confusion at the distorted voice and before he knew what hit him, Rem shot from the rafters and plowed him into the floor. Standing in a defensive stance, the white power infused dragon allowed the elder to stand before charging and knocked him back to the floor. As Rem charged a third time, the elder stood and smashed the flat of his tail blade into the smaller dragon and launched him into and through one of the wood walls. As Infernus looked through the hole in the wall, he smiled as he spotted the younger eastern dragon lying motionless under a pile of debris. And from his jaws poured a blaze of fire, that instantly caught onto the broken wood and set the estate ablaze.

The crimson flames licked against the rubble that buried Rem, and he winced in pain as he awoke to find himself In an inferno, across from him, he saw the vanishing figure of Infernus, leaving the estate to burn to the ground. Although he was a fire dragon, and the blaze didn't hurt him, the smoke was beginning to overwhelm the black scaled dragon, and with a growl he kicked the rubble that trapped him to the ground away and limped out of the estate and into the forest. Stalking through the woods, Rem could see the Guardians, talking amongst themselves "The other Easterling must have escaped into the forest, spread out and find him, I want him alive, so that this traitor can watch him die." Hissed the Fire Guardian as he held his side, which was sporting a wound Rem had inflicted earlier. Without another word, the dragons split up, leaving Phobius with one of the guards. Once it was clear, Rem attacked from behind and quietly took down the dragon without a sound. He then proceeded to cut the adult free and the two flew off, circling around the valley and landing unseen in the clearing where the tunnel let out. The night had now fully taken over the sky and the clouds blocked out the light of the moon. With a keen eye, Rem looked around the edge of the clearing. "What now?" he whispered as shouts echoed through the forest.

As Ty hurried down the dark passage way, Reya and Lee helped Crow limp towards the exit. Every step felt like knives were slicing his nerves apart, but the young dragon tried everything he could to stop himself from gasping out in pain. His torment, however, was apparent to the others and Reya and Lee tried their best to help him. As they continued through the stone passageway however, Crow suddenly realized they were missing one of their party members. Driving his heels into the ground, he fell away from his friends.

"Wait! We've got to go back, Rem didn't come with us!" he said his eyes wide with fear as he tried to crawl back towards the estate. "He probably just couldn't get through in time, I'm sure he got out another way, come on Crow, we don't have time for this!" said Reya firmly and helped Crow back to his feet, while Lee and Ty waited patiently for the two to catch up, looking up towards the ceiling in concern as dust fell from the beams supporting it as something big crashed around above them. "What on earth is going on up there?" whispered Reya in fear as they started back down towards the exit. "It's Rem, he's fighting against the Guardians, we must go back, I've got to help him!" moaned Crow but he almost blacked out as another spasm shot through his shoulder, and he slumped to the side. "We need to get Crow far away from this place." said Lee quietly, and Ty looked to the ground with a snarl on his face as the sound of his brother's voice, but nodded and helped the others carry Crow. Soon enough, they reached the end of the tunnel and the twins managed to open the rusty door, which led out into the forest. Reya gently placed Crow against one of the pine trees, where he could sit up, and then looked back towards the estate. "Oh my..." she whispered as she spotted flames and ash rising up from Phobius's home. "You don't think...they killed Rem and Phobius, do you?" she whispered to Lee, who shook his head slowly. "They got away, I'm sure of it." he said confidently. At the sound of wing beats however, the wolves slunk back into the forest while Reya crouched down beside Crow, who was having trouble staying awake.

When she realized it was Rem, carrying Phobius however, her eyes narrowed and she strode forward to meet him. As soon as he touched down and placed the unconscious guardian down, she slapped him across the face. "What in God's name do you think you were doing? Trying to be some sort of hero?" She snarled, and lowered her voice "You scared Crow half to death, and don't you realize what sort of situation you've put us in now? Before, the Fear Guardian might have been proven innocent, but now, the Guardians have solid proof that he helped you and Crow! Not to mention they'll be looking for us now, before we might have actually had a chance of escaping, but do you really think that they won't comb this entire forest looking for us now?" she hissed and the twins glared at him from within the darkness.

Rem growled and tackled the younger dragoness as she yelled at him. His eyes grew to a bright white as wisps started to appear around his body. "They found one of the used bandages anyways." he snarled in her face, gnashing his teeth, "They had proof to begin with. So I did what was right!" Reya screamed in fright as she was shoved down to the ground, but before she could leap back up, Rem had taken off. "Psh, typical." she said with a grimace as Ty and Lee helped her to her feet. "Where do you suppose he's gone?" asked Lee as he watched the vanishing figure of the Fire Dragon move farther and farther away. "I don't know, and frankly, I don't care. He's a loose cannon, way too unpredictable and completely without control of his anger." she hissed and Lee looked at her with a slight grin. "What?" she snapped.

"You act like that too sometimes you know. Like what you did earlier, slapping the dragon that had just taken out a large portion of Warfang." he added with a low laugh, while Ty rolled his eyes sarcastically. "Well, what are we going to do now anyways?" said Lee on a more serious tone, and Reya looked towards the ground, deep in thought. "We need to get out of here, we are far too close to the estate to stay anywhere near this passage door...but both Crow...and now Phobius...are unconscious and in need of medical attention, damn that Rem for running off, we could use him right now!" she sighed in frustration. They waited about an hour for him to return, but after they heard voices in the distance, Lee got to his feet. "We need to go, now." he whispered, his eyes wide with fear. Reya looked over towards the Guardian "But what about him? We can't just leave-" she stopped as Lee leaned down to pick up Crow "We have no choice, I won't see Crow taken away from us." he said quietly and Ty glanced nervously from his brother towards Reya. Lee looked over towards her from across the clearing and started to walk away "Wait!" cried Reya, before cursing herself for yelling, and quickly lowered her voice "If we do this, Crow will never forgive us, leaving both Phobius, and Rem behind? It's madness, we owe it to him to stay..." she said desperately but Lee would not be swayed.

"We've already done the unthinkable to him, and that was for his own good, If we do nothing now, and he is captured, I'll never be able to forgive myself. Reya...please." he said, his voice equally as desperate, but his eyes did not meet hers. Ty said nothing, and hung his head as he waited for Reya to speak. At last she got to her feet.

"I understand why we can't take Phobius with us, but what about Rem-"

"What do you care about him?" snapped Lee suddenly, placing Crow down gently before rounding on the fire dragoness. "You were ready to just blast him through a tree about an hour ago, why so keen to stay and wait, for someone who may not even come back!" he snapped, a low growl emitting from his throat, and Reya stared at him in shock, she had never seen Lee act this way before, and it scared her a little. Was all of this changing them for the worst?

"Alright, alright. But where will we go? Back to Warfang? To live out our happy little lives just like before? They know Crow's face now, every guard and citizen alike will be looking for him...for vengeance." she said stepping forward. Lee backed up a bit and glanced towards Crow again "No one will know him, he isn't marked anymore."

"Oh, Lee...listen to yourself, we had the chance to free Crow from his curse, but now it's too late, even after what we did to him...don't you see? He won't ever be safe in Warfang!" she said quietly, her voice breaking slightly as tears started to form in her eyes, she had long known this truth in her heart, but only now was she admitting it to herself, they had tortured Crow for nothing, not even now could he live as a western citizen, free from the torment of the people of Warfang.

Lee grimaced as he combed his mind for ideas "It was Rem's fault! If he hadn't interfered..." he wrung his hands in anguish "Then none of this would have ever happened! We would all be back home, where we belong…" he trailed off and Reya suddenly started laughing, a cruel, mocking laugh.

"You really think living in the gutters is where we belong? We are the dregs of society, worthless, rotting, foul creatures! What hope do we have, most of our kind die before we reach adulthood, and you want to take us back into that madness? Lee...this is our chance to free, for all of us to be free. We could go to one of the smaller villages to the north, I'm almost old enough to start working...we don't need to live in Warfang anymore." she added, her voice turning soft, but Lee stared at her in misbelief.

"Warfang is our home, how could you possibly ask me to leave the only home I've ever known?" he said, a growl resonating in his voice once more. "Lee, I know that you and Ty are both very attached to that city, but only death awaits us there. If you really cared about Crow, you would take him far away, where it is safe, we could be a family again-"

"As if YOU know anything about family!" Lee suddenly snarled, and Reya winced "At least you have parents, but they weren't good enough for you so you ran away! I KNOW Reya, I know that you were once a nobleman's daughter, but apparently riches and family weren't good enough for you, so you left and decided to become the self-appointed leader of our little 'family'. You don't know...what's like, to grow up without parents, to live every day, not knowing if it was your last..." Lee grew quiet and stared at the ground for a moment, shifting the dust under his paw. "After Crow came, things got better, it started to feel like the entire city was just our playground, and we were the kings of it. I...I don't want to lose that feeling...I don't want to lose any of you..." he whispered, looking to all of them, including Crow who now lay unconscious on the ground. "Lee..." said Ty softly and stepped forward, placing his paw on his brother's shoulder. Lee's eyes widened in shock as his brother spoke "It's time we moved on. We've been living in silence all these years...but I've finally realized you were right to leave that pact behind. It's time that we made our voices heard. Let's do what Reya says and go north, we will be alright." he whispered, his voice soft. Lee's eyes started to water, and he pulled his brother into a tight hug. "I'm sorry...for breaking the pact..." he said quietly and Ty merely smiled and hugged Lee back. "It's okay, you were right to do so."

Reya sighed with relief and walked over to the two, smiling slightly. "Are we...okay, now?" she asked and the two stepped away and nodded. "Alright, well then...let's go." she said and with one last look towards the sky, Reya stooped down and helped pick Crow up and carry him away from the fire, and voices that shouted through the tree's in the distance.

After Rem had finally calmed down, he decided it was time to return to the clearing, it had been wrong of him to leave them, and he could still some of the guardians moving through the woods beneath him, and was glad for his black scales. However, as he landed in the clearing near the tunnel entrance, his eyes widened in shock to realize that they were gone, only Phobius remained, his eyes blinking slowly as he woke up. "Rem…what happened? Where are the others? Did they escape?" he asked quietly and the young apprentice kneeled down beside him, cursing Reya and the wolves, it was pointless to try and follow them now, not with his Master in such a state. "Yes, they've moved on, although where I do not know, probably North." He said quietly and helped Phobius to his feet. "We must leave this place, it won't be long before the Guardians realize you are missing." He said urgently and Phobius nodded and the two took off into the air, as they soared above the clouds, the stars shining down upon them, Phobius glanced over towards his pupil "You're quiet, what troubles you?" he asked and Rem frowned slightly "I know that I owe it to you to stay, but I feel that I must return to the east, Crow is lost to me now…Reya has made sure of that, but I want to know if anyone has survived. I don't know if I will ever return." He said quietly and the Fear Guardian nodded in understanding, before touching down on the tip of a mountain, Rem following suit. The sun began to rise over the horizon, illuminating the valley around them, the mountains to the north, and the faint outline of Warfang to the West. "Here…if you ever see Crow again, could you give these to him?" asked Rem as he broke off a few scales, and wrapped them in a cloth. The Guardian took them with a nod and tucked them away silently. "Tell Crow that if he is ever in trouble however, to breathe his element on these scales and I will come, no matter where I am…If I may, where will you go?" asked Rem and Phobius sighed as he looked towards the rising sun.

"North, somewhere in the wilds where it will be safe, until the time comes when I am needed…may the winds be fair to you, I hope to see you again one day, my student" said the Guardian with a slight bow that Rem returned, before the two took off again and parted ways, Phobius heading north, while Rem flew towards the Eastern Sea, towards home.

Miles below, Reya, Ty, Lee and Crow spotted a tiny village, Ridgewood, which was bustling with activity as the sun rose over the horizon. With a determined look, the group marched straight into the little town, ready to start their new life.


	7. Chapter 7

Fall of the East: Chapter Seven

Over the next few days, Reya tried her best to start a new life in the quiet town of Ridgewood, using the money they had left, she managed to get a place for them to stay in the inn until they had enough to buy their own place. "We can't steal anymore, it was alright to do that in the city, but here, they will know we did it, and we don't want to draw attention to ourselves, particularly when Crow is in such a delicate state..." said Reya one day, and it was true. While the three of them were out looking for work, Crow's health was not faring very well. He had gone almost catatonic after he had learned that both Rem and Phobius had left him behind and nothing the twins or Reya said could cheer him up. He suffered from a fever, and would make little effort to do anything at all. Lee hardly left his side and tried his best to nurse him back to health, but it all seemed rather bleak, and they were quickly running out of money. At last, after a week, Reya finally found a job working at one of the blacksmiths, while Ty had managed to secure a place for both him and his brother as labourers at the mill near the edge of town. It was tiring work, and every day Reya and one of the twins would come back to their place and crash, exhausted. But the pay was good, particularly for Reya, and with their pooled funds they managed to buy a small flat for themselves in one of the larger buildings. It was noisy and rather small for four growing teens, but it was better than anywhere they had lived before.

One night, after Reya had returned from work, she flopped down onto one of the main cushions in the central room, before looking over towards Ty and Lee, who were eating dinner. "Well, I've done it, Kadar finally made me his apprentice!" she said with a huge grin.

"It's about time! You've been working for him for what? Almost a month now?" laughed Lee as he ripped off a piece of meat from the bone he was chewing on. Reya nodded and sat up "He's going to teach me everything there is to know about blacksmithing, one day, I'll be able to open up my own shop!" she said excitedly, but lowered her voice as Crow began to cough in the other room and all three of them hung their heads slightly. "We've got to do something; he's gotten a lot worse over the past few days" said Ty quietly, gesturing towards the door.

"It's been four weeks... I hate to see him like this, it's like he's wasting away…" and Lee clenched his paw together in anger, none of them could stand seeing Crow so near to deaths door, some days, the young dragon would get up and walk around as if he was fine, but then he would just have a relapse, and things would be worse than they were before. Reya and Ty nodded silently, they hadn't risked taking him to a healers before now, but what choice did they have? "I'll take him." said Ty suddenly and got to his feet. "We've made more than enough money to pay for a healer, Luna would be a good choice, she doesn't ask any questions, and doesn't ask for much." Reya bit her lip and looked over towards the door again. "You don't think that this...illness was caused by...you know…" she whispered, and Lee shook his head firmly "No way, that can't be it, he's endured far worse than that, and pulled through. Remember when he caught the plague in Warfang three months ago? He shook it off without a problem! Most kids die from the plague, but not him. If he can survive that, he can survive anything! He just needs a healer, that's all." he said firmly while Ty collected some coins from their store. Reya got to her feet and walked over towards the window "It's just that...his wound still hasn't healed yet, I keep changing the bandages but nothing seems to work! It's like...like he's cursed or something." she said quietly and Lee got up and walked over to her, placing a paw on her shoulder. "Listen to me" he said quietly and looked into her eyes "We did what we had to do to save him from the Guardians, don't blame yourself for this." he said seriously and after whipping a tear away Reya nodded, but she still felt the guilt within her heart. "Alright, I'm ready to go, Lee, could you give me a hand?" asked Ty as he opened the door to Crow's room. Inside, the curtains had been drawn shut, and Crow lay still on his bed, gazing up towards the ceiling. His breath rasped quietly as Lee and Ty walked over to him "Crow? Are you awake?" asked Lee quietly and smiled slightly as the dragon nodded. "We've decided to take you to a healer, alright? You'll be safe there, don't worry." said Ty encouragingly and the twins helped Crow up. Once he was on his feet, Crow shuddered slightly and had to lean heavily on Lee for help. Together, the twins escorted Crow out into the street below and towards the healer. Luna, an adult Ice Dragon, sat outside smoking a pipe on her front porch, but quickly put it out when she spotted the twins. "Who's this, a traveller?" she asked in a husky voice, her pale blue eyes examining Crow carefully. "No Luna, he's a friend of ours, but he's been ill ever since we arrived here, his condition continues to worsen, and we were hoping you could help." explained Ty and Luna nodded before ushering the twins inside. "Put him down there." said Luna, motioning to one of the beds in the large room. A crackling fire kept the healers home warm and cast a pleasant glow over the varnished wood floors. After gathering a few supplies, Luna approached Crow and started asking him a few questions while Ty waited outside. Lee had to go to the evening shift, but he promised to stop by on his way home. After a while, Luna joined Ty on the porch and took out her pipe again. "Well, how is he?" asked the Anthro-Wolf nervously and Luna sighed, blowing a smoke ring out into the evening light. "He's suffering from blood poisoning, probably from the wound on his shoulder." she said glancing towards Ty, whose expression was pure shock. "That can't be right, we've been-" he was cut off as Luna waved her paw around in exasperation "Whatever you've been doing it obviously hasn't helped!" she said, puffing on her pipe resolutely before continuing "The wound festered shortly after it was inflicted on the boy, probably from some sort of unclean metal. The point is, this is beyond my skill to heal, he needs medicine from Warfang-" It was Ty's turn to interrupt her "WHAT? You can't mean that, are you sure you don't have the supplies to cure him?" asked the wolf, his eyes wide, but Luna shook her head. "You can't stock for an illness as serious as this. He needs magic, a healer from the academy, or from their central hospital will be able to help him, but you need to take him there as soon as possible...if you had gotten him here sooner, I might have been able to do something, but it's too late for that, boy." sighed the Ice Dragon and walked back inside leaving Ty on the porch, staring into space as smoke weaved its way through the air.

_The East: Ruins of Aeon_

Rem sat in his old, abandoned home as he had done for the past month or so. The fire dragon had returned with the hopes of finding some of his own nationality, but coming up short on his dreams. The destroyed city of Aeon had been completely abandoned by the dragons and Anthro's that used to live there and now was a ghost town, a shadow of its former glory. Rem's head shot up as he suddenly remembered that terrible night. The fires raged around his home and the smoke was thick in the air. He saw his mother run into her room and move a bookshelf to hide something before grabbing him and running out of the house. As he entered the bedroom, he walked over to the charred bookshelf, his foot breaking the glass of a portrait of him and his family. Moving the broken glass aside and setting the picture respectfully atop the charred bed stand, he turned back to the bookshelf and shoved it aside, grunting as he did so. What he found made him gasp aloud; it was single egg, wrapped in linin. Stooping down, Rem picked the egg up and was amazed to feel that it was still warm. Looking around, at a loss, the Fire Dragon debated about what to do with it. Should he just leave it here? No, how could he, this egg held the last of his kind, the last of his family, he would see no harm come to it. But this husk of a city was no place to raise a newborn, even if it was devoid of dragons who wanted to kill him. No…he would have to go somewhere safe, somewhere out of the way…his thoughts drifted back, as they often did, to the West, where he had left Crow behind. Perhaps he could find him again…With that thought in mind, he took to the skies, and flew back over the ocean, the egg tucked safely away in his satchel.

After what seemed like an eternity sailing over the open sea, he came upon a familiar sight, the mountain range that he had become so familiar with during the days he had spent with Phobius, and the young dragon's heart grew heavy at the thought of his mentor. Where was he now? Where was Crow? Slowing his descent, Rem landed besides the ruins of the estate. It was not much different than his home town, a dead husk, a shadow of what once was. Turning away from it, he began his trek north, and after a day, he arrived at a little town called Ridgewood. Before entering the city, he waved his paw over his shoulder to hide his mark with magic, and then began his search, looking left and right for Crow, the Anthro's or Reya. Subconsciously, the fire dragon placed a paw to his cheek where the female had slapped him.

_Ridgewood_

As soon as his shift was over, Lee threw down the last bag of flour and bolted out the door, dodging various tools as his employer yelled profanities at him for skipping out early. "Sorry Tayla, I'll be sure to send Ty in early tomorrow!" he called over his shoulder with a grin. "Ya damn layabout! Why don't YOU come in early tomorrow?" shouted the adult Anthro wolf from the mills entrance and placed a paw on her hip in fury as Lee rushed away. "What on earth has gotten that boy in such a rush?" she muttered before heading inside to lock up. Meanwhile, Lee was running full out through the village, and practically slammed into a fire dragon on his way to the healers. "Sorry!" he yelled but didn't stop to make a proper apology. As he approached Luna's house, he skidded to a halt as Ty leapt over the railing and ran up to him. "What, what is it? What did Luna find out?" he asked, placing his paw over his chest as he tried to catch his breath. Ty crossed his arms and gave him a look before speaking "It's worse than we thought, Crow has blood poisoning, he needs a healer from the city, no less than a magician from the academy or the main hospital." he said urgently, his voice low. "What?" gasped Lee and the two walked back to the porch together "But, doesn't Luna have anything that could help?" he asked as he peered inside, Luna was bent over Crows shoulder and stitching to wounds together while Ty shook his head. "No, he needs magic, and someone who is very skilled with it. We've got to go back to Warfang, and find him a doctor there...Lee...he's running out of time." he whispered and after a moment's hesitation, Lee nodded. "Alright, we've got to tell Reya then, but don't mention the fact that Crow got blood poisoning from the wound in his shoulder, it would tear Reya apart if she knew he was suffering because of our mistake." said Ty as they two walked off and headed towards the Blacksmiths. "Hello? Kadar?" called Lee as the twins walked into the store, the Adult Fire Dragon looked up from the forge and waved to them in greeting "Reya's out back boys!" he yelled over the sound of pounding metal and the wolves waved back in thanks before heading around the shop, where Reya was forging tools and weaponry. At the sight of the twins, she set down the armour she had been working on and took off her goggles. "What's the news from Luna?" she asked, whipping the soot off her scales. As the twins explained the situation, her eyes narrowed and she nodded. "Alright then, I'll take him." she said, crossing her arms. "Reya, no. You have a job here, I should go, Ty could take my shift in my absence." offered Lee while Ty scowled at the prospect. "No, if Crow is in such a state, he needs to get there as soon as possible, and I can fly him there." Reya insisted and after she made it clear that she wasn't about to budge, the twins gave in. "Fine, alright. But, promise us that you'll be careful. It's been a while, but who knows how dangerous Warfang might be for you, and Crow." said Lee as Reya packed her tools away. "Kadar! Is it alright if I take the next few days off? I need to escort a friend to the hospital in Warfang." explained Reya, and the Fire Dragon nodded after some consideration. "Alright, but be sure to come back as soon as possible, we still need to finish the equipment that Tayla ordered." he said gruffly before getting back to work. "Thank you!" said Reya before walking outside, the twin's right behind her.

Rem huffed as the Anthro wolf crashed into him and rushed to make sure the egg was alright. The fire dragon froze for a moment and turned to see the wolf running off. That is one of them! Rem rushed after the Anthro, but stood back a bit and listened as one of the twins talked about Crow having blood poisoning. After the wolves left, he slowly made his way inside and stood at the door respectfully. Luna looked up from Crow's wound as she finished stitching it and glanced towards him "Shops closed, come back tomorrow." She said gruffly and quickly tied a bandage around the child's shoulder. "I'm not here for that…I wish to speak with that dragon there…" said Rem quietly, his eyes fixed on Crow. He couldn't believe he was seeing him again; it was almost as if the young fear dragon was frozen in time, nothing had changed about his appearance, and Rem slowly approached him and sat down beside him. Luna gave raised an eyebrow at him but then shrugged and went back to her desk, lighting up her pipe and quietly scribbling away in her books. The fire dragon looked down at Crow, who's eyes were staring up to the ceiling, clouded and unseeing, and took his paw, before quietly explaining why he had to leave, not knowing if his friend could hear him or not.

Crow could vaguely determine that someone was nearby; talking to him, but everything seemed to move in a haze, surrounded by horrific creatures that had seemed to swim in the air around him, tormenting him in his dreams, and before his waking eyes. He grimaced and tried to move, but his arms felt like lead. Crow had been trying so hard to fight off this pestilence, but as the days had gone by, his will had weakened significantly. It was strange though, the presence of this dragon seemed somewhat familiar, but he just couldn't place it. "Who are you? And what are you doing here?" snapped Reya as she walked inside and the twins growled ferociously as they spotted the newcomer in the healers home. Luna got up from her desk and held up her paws "Calm down you three, this dragon explained to me that he was a friend of Crows, and I saw no harm in letting him in." she explained and Reya's eyes widened in realization. "Rem?" she said quietly "Is that you?"

Rem nodded slowly before looking over towards her, she had changed, over the month since last he had seen her, no longer the child she had appeared to be when they first met. "What happened to him? I gleaned some information from them earlier but I would like to know the full extent of his condition." He said quietly.

Reya walked carefully over to Crow and placed a paw on his shoulder, her eyes narrowed in suspicion while Ty and Lee stood at the doorway. "The wound that he received in Warfang never fully healed, and he now has blood poisoning. I am going to take him back to the city and get him into a hospital." She said shortly, unwilling to divulge any more information. "But you didn't answer my question before, what are you doing back here? I thought you were going back to the East?"

_Warfang_

Korasi sat in a tree in a park within the city of Warfang, she has been searching for the past few weeks for the two dragons that Alto wanted but whatever she did or how long she looked she was unable to find them.

She snorted in frustration. How could two dragons that she could have been following for so long just simply disappear? Perhaps they have already been executed; and there was also the possibility that they left the city.

She rolled onto her back and looked up letting a thick arched tree branch supporting her weight. She needed leads, she has heard about 'The Demon' from civilians gossiping but honestly she could not figure out who or what 'The Demon' was. After all, the city had experienced multiple disasters about a month ago, it could mean anything.

Korasi heard some footsteps from a dragon, no, there was two sets of footsteps that could be heard.

"You can't be serious." One of the voices said.

"I'm quite sure it is true." Said another voice "We have been searching the estate for a month now, you even burned it down, there is no clues or traces of where they could have possibly went!"

The more the conversation continued the louder it got, Korasi turned over on her belly once more and she looked down from the tree to see who was approaching and who were discussing such an interesting conversation.

Peeking through the leaves, a white dragon accompanied by a red dragon, obviously elders came into view.

"_Oh, it's the guardians."_ Korasi thought to herself as her eyes tracked onto the passing guardians.

"If the security force claims they can't find anything in that estate after a month, they have the right to call off the investigation…" The white dragon said as they passed the tree.

Unfortunately the two dragons went out of earshot. It did not matter, Korasi had heard enough.

"Estate? Korasi asked herself puzzled. Something like that would probably be located near the outskirts of the city, or somewhere in the high end district…but they had mentioned a forest…just who had been living there? Well, whoever they were, they may have just been harbouring the Eastern dragons, a wealthy, upstanding member of society would arouse less suspicion, and a conveniently placed house outside the city would make the perfect hiding place for a refugee, at least it was worth checking out.

Within the next hour she was flying around the outskirts of Warfang to search for a possible house.

"Ruin." She corrected herself. Korasi was about to give up as the sun began to set but with the last rays of sunlight of the day, she spotted the burnt out estate a few meters away from the tree line.

It smelled like blood, stone and mostly ash. This had to be the place. She touched down on top of a tree a few meters away and scouted to make sure no guard were nearby. She noticed a platoon of creatures moving away from the ruins two hills over.

Confident that no one was there, Korasi leapt from the tree top and landed silently and approached the fallen structure. Concrete has been cracked, wooden shards and planks burnt and scattered and gravity has let everything fall tightly to the ground. The metallic scent of dried blood caught her attention again, blood usually means a trail. Korasi went into the forest and found what she was looking for, a rusted door, hanging off its hinges. Beyond it was a collapsed tunnel, no doubt the refugees escaped from here. In the clearing beyond, her twitching nose confirmed that this was the source of the blood. It had been spilt on the base of a tree, and had almost been washed away, she kneelt down into the grass and spotted tracks, and grinned. They led north.

Korasi stood still and pouted, deciding what to do next. Report back to Alto or follow the trail?

After a fair amount of consideration, she decided to follow the trail north. She has been away from Alto for two weeks now; he can wait a few more days at least.

After a few hours of travelling and tracking, she found herself a several hundred meters away from a village. Smoke and torches showed a working society was indeed functioning. Korasi began to trot the rest of the way; she was thinking of whether she should hide her mark or let it be seen. Warfang wasn't too far away and this civilization might be an ally of the city as well, best to keep it hidden just in case.

She took a scented ink from a saddle satchel she brought with her and rubbed some of the liquid to cover the mark on her left shoulder. She decided to place her Claws in the satchel as well.

The sky was clear and the moon was high in the air. The moonlight gave a generous blue tinged white light as she approached the village's entrance and soon two of those two-legged creatures came out of the nearest house with halberds at the ready.

"Night shift guards, always there to protect their homes at night." Korasi thought to herself.

"Halt!" One of the wolf-like creature exclaimed.

Korasi tried to recall the names of these creatures; she heard it while eavesdropping the small group of thieves once.

"_Anthro's was it?"_ Korasi thought.

"What is your business here?" Asked the second guard when he blocked the dragoness's path.

"I'm here to rest from travelling, I have come because of.. an invitation from some of my friends sent me a few weeks ago." Korasi lied talking in a smooth innocent tone. "I'm not sure if this is the right place however, have you received any new civilians lately?"

The guards became more passive at the voice of Korasi, she had a talent for smooth talking, though she didn't think it was because of her tone but because her explanation seemed fairly reasonable.

"You may rest in a nearby inn but before I may continue let me say that we are on the lookout for a some dragons that are very dangerous as of two months ago, therefore please excuse our aggressiveness." One of the guards told her.

Korasi blinked innocently as she waited for the guard to answer the rest of her questions. She noticed the second guard eyeing and scanning his partner strangely which caused Korasi to assume a thought that she would bring up later.

"As for new civilians of our village, we have a party of four join us a month or so ago. We do not know where they live, so you may need to ask any people around you. Is that all Miss?" The guard concluded.

"Yes, however I like to speak with your partner here for a brief moment in privacy if I may?" Korasi asked.

"Uhh…" The guard said unsure, it was a strange question to ask Korasi admitted. "Sure, I guess?" The guard scratched his head and nodded "Enjoy your stay Miss." Before he retreated into the nearby house.

"You wanted to speak with me in private Miss?" The second guard asked.

"I noticed you looking at your partner." Korasi began.

"Uh. Yes, what about it?" The guard asked nervously.

"You like males." Korasi said.

"You can read my mind!" exclaimed the guard.

"No." Korasi chirped.

"Damn…" The guard said in embarrassment.

Korasi laughed but couldn't help but feel sympathy so she patted him on the shoulder as she walked by. "Good night mister."

She continued to travel into the village and scanned the homes for any activity. Down the path she noticed a door open, two more Anthro's stood in the doorway, but beyond them, Korasi could just make out the figure of two dragons, talking quietly to one another. Her eyes widened when she recognized one of them. It was Rem!

Korasi began to walk a little faster but still pacing herself to approach the building. They did not know her, but maybe she can know them a little better…

"What did you want to talk about in private Rem? About me going back to Warfang?" The dragoness asked when Korasi got into earshot.

"_Returning so soon? Interesting…" _Koras_i_ thought as she began to approach the two dragons.

Rem sat down and opened his bag slightly and looked around for any eavesdroppers, revealing the egg. "The East is not safe for it. I also returned because there is nothing left. I did not find any other eastern survivors. Alto killed them all, so I came back, for my brother, sister, whatever it may be, and to see Crow again. I didn't get the chance to say goodbye" he said, rather coldly as he placed the cover back over the bag. "And as for you heading to Warfang, I agree with it. But I have to ask of you, please bring him back alive. He is too young to die from a wound like that." he said, fire burning in his eyes, he didn't know who had done such a thing to Crow. The western dragons would often carve out the symbols of the Eastern dragons they killed as trophies during the war, as he had learned from Phobius, and it was considered a great disrespect to the eastern race.

Reya showed no reaction towards his stab at what she had done to Crow, as far as he was concerned, she would take that secret to her grave, and wasn't about to let him goad her into revealing her sins. "You don't have to worry about him anymore, I would lay down my own life to save him, if that's what it took to bring him back alive...there is an inn nearby you could stay, if you are planning to remain in the Ridgewood, but I am leaving with Crow tonight." she said curtly, and led him out to the porch, while motioning to the village inn, The Burning Ember, that rested at the end of the road. However as another dragon approached, she fell silent and walked back inside, nodding to Ty and Lee, who stood guard at the door as Reya helped Crow prepare for their journey.

As Korasi approached the two dragons, the fire dragon looked in her direction. There was no mistake that she was the leader of the thieving group back in Warfang, the one that Rem's friend had become a part of, for a time. But what was she doing in a place like this? Judging from their conversation, she must have helped the Eastern Dragon escape, and decided to remain with him here, in this small blight of a town. She must be fairly devoted to him to sacrifice so much for the Eastern Dragon, it reminded her slightly of when Alto saved her, but she dismissed the thought almost immediately and continued walking leisurely down the road towards the inn the thief was directing Rem towards. She could hear Rem give the dragon a quick word of thanks before heading off towards it, while the dragoness turned around and walked back inside. Smiling slightly, Korasi fell in line behind the black scaled dragon as he walked down the road.

"Give him these, for the pain. It's going to get a lot worse over the next couple of days, if he doesn't die first." said Luna smugly inside the house as she handed Reya a small bag of herbs, the young fire dragoness looked at her seriously and took then before nodding in thanks. "Alright Crow, time to go..." she said quietly and picked him up. Over the past four months, she had grown to the proper size for a dragon her age, not quite as large as Rem, but certainty much larger than Crow, who was still very small and malnourished for his age. She tried hard not to think about the pain he was going through, and left the healers home, where Ty and Lee were waiting for her, a small bag of supplies with them. "We went back to the flat to pick these up for you, it's the money you'll need for a doctor, and some food, for the trip." said Lee in a hushed tone while Ty looked at her and Crow with a worried expression. "Thanks guys, I promise we'll both be back soon." she said with emphasis and Lee nodded slightly, although it was clear he had his doubts. Without another word, Reya strolled out into middle of the street and took off, pumping her wings vigorously until she was high in the air, sailing back towards Warfang. It seemed strange to think that she would ever set eyes upon it again, just yesterday; she had honestly believed that Crow would eventually get better, and they would be able to live in peace in Ridgewood. Soon enough, after passing by the ruins of the estate, the sights and smells of Warfang appeared, and Reya altered her course to head straight for the central Warfang hospital, a large building teaming with the injured and the diseased of the city.

Eventually Rem entered the building that was long in length and had a second floor, a large wooden sign swung back and forth, sporting the picture of a fire and the carved words _"The Burning Ember_" spiraling around it, while chipped pain flaked away from the image. Korasi let Rem rent a room and go upstairs before she entered the inn herself.

The innkeeper eyed Korasi curiously.

"I'm a friend of his, I only need to talk to him for a moment." Korasi said sweetly to him. The innkeeper nodded silently but he tapped a clock to show that she was being timed. Korasi forced a smile and went upstairs and quickly got a glimpse of the room Rem entered. After waiting a minute before knocking on the door, ready to confront the dragon she wanted to kill the most. However it was at that point she realized she had not equipped her weapons, but it was too late, the door swung open, and Rem stood before her, gazing at her with a mix of curiosity, confusion and suspicion. Korasi was stunned, not because she of her last minute thought but because in the light she could actually see Rem a bit more clearly.

He was a lot more muscular than she originally thought. Strange, she swore he was a lot more skinnier but that did not matter at this point, he could easily kill her if he wanted to. Without her second pair of claws, she would be close to useless, she began to regret refusing Alto's close quarters combat, without weapons, training.

"Hello? Are you all right? You look strange." The male dragon asked her. His tone had stress and frustration in it, obviously not in a good mood which does not help Korasi either.

"Uh. Hi." Korasi squeaked unintentionally. She was even surprised at how strange her response came out. "Oh, I'm fine." Korasi forced a laugh. What was she going to do? Her mind began to rush with options. Fighting him now would be futile, it takes a few seconds to equip her claws and she alone can't fight Him. Perhaps learning more about him and his friends can come in handy in the future. Yes, that was it. She would be a spy. She would need to pretend to be his friend, but how to convince?

She looked at his body once more and noticed an odd shimmer around his right shoulder, Korasi's eyes lit up.

"I need to talk to you. About something serious." Korasi said in her still girlish squeak. She coughed and adjusted her throat a little in hope it would fix her predicament.

"About what?" Rem asked he said curtly.

'Serious guy' Korasi thought.

"May I come in first?" Korasi asked, her voice was beginning to go back to normal but not completely.

He stared at her, his gaze made her feel small, though she was physically shorter than Rem, she still felt useless under his stare.

He waited a few seconds before stepping to the side and letting her through.

"Sure." He responded "Please make it quick though."

Korasi padded into the room sheepishly and immediately started to scan the room, looking for something that would fare well as a weapon. A chair is too weak, the wardrobe and bed is probably too heavy, a waste bin shouldn't even be considered and some torches. Torches could have probably worked, if he wasn't a fire dragon. Nothing in the room was eligible to be a weapon. Guess she did have to take the Spy approach.

"What is it that you wanted to discuss about?" Rem asked as he closed the door.

Korasi looked back, his words snapping her out of her train of thought. The hidden emblem on his shoulder was her key to convince him that she would be a… temporary friend.

"Well, what is it?" Rem asked in impatiently. He paused for a second before he quickly added a question "Are you a-"

"No!" Korasi said insulted knowing what he was about to say. "Nothing like that!"

Rem was a little taken back at her response. "Good because I did not want to purchase any of your fancy visitors products."

Korasi stared in confusion for a brief second. "Uh, No I'm nothing...of that sort. Look I'm here to show you something, but first I need to do something. Please do not move."

Korasi headed towards Rem and reached Rem's shoulder and was about to remove the magic around it but Rem grabbed her foreleg and stopped her from pulling it off. She looked up to see Rem eyeing her fiercely.

Korasi rolled her eyes. "You can trust me." She said as she let arm drop, leaving Rem with a rather confused expression.

Korasi turned around and went to a nearby sink and turned it on.

"Look, please." Korasi asked.

She took some of the cold water and splashed it on her left shoulder and began to rub it furiously until the black ink faded revealing her insignia of the Eastern Dragons and leaving Rem to stare at her shoulder in shock.

"You... you're... from the East?" asked the stunned fire dragon. "Did... did you follow me here from the home lands? I didn't see anyone there and I searched for a month!" A wide smile broke out on his face. So he, Crow and his egg were not the last ones! Suddenly, and odd tapping noise echoed through the room, and Rem stiffened, the egg was hatching! Should he ask this dragoness to leave? Korasi craned her head to see the egg behind him and smiled, which made Rem believe she meant no harm towards it and decided to allow her to remain while he walked over to the egg. After a few moments, a small, delicate white ice dragoness sat in his paw, looking up at him with vibrant blue eyes. The fire dragon held his baby sister close and nuzzled her gently before facing the older female. "How did you escape Alto?"

Korasi hesitated momentarily at the mention of her master. She quickly recovered and made up a lie. "Beneath my home there was an emergency water tunnel that lead to the lake south of the villa, I was told to go through first, I obeyed of course and once I began to head down the tunnel…" Korasi added a pause on purpose to try to convince him "…A cave in occurred and I did not see the rest of my dynasty since." Korasi concluded sadly.

"At this point I'm positive none of the other Eastern Dragons survived until I saw you a moment ago outside." Korasi she told him.

Rem looked to the female eastern with a confused tilt of his head and his eyes gazing suspiciously at hers. "That is one factor that I do not understand. How did you know I was an eastern when I had a spell to cover the markings and change my scale colour?" he asked in a curios tone. His attention was brought down for a second when his baby sister began to nibble on one of his toes and claws, forcing his gaze to soften and nuzzle the young dragon hatchling once more. On his way back from the healers, Rem had purchased some hatchling supplies and took out a small strip of meat. Standing, he carried the hatchling to the sink and prepared her food before walking back and feeding her, waiting for the female's response the whole while.

Korasi watched as the dragon worked with the hatchling, it was fascinating to see the process of a dragon coming out of a shell and especially to see it have a small dot on its shoulder. An Eastern dragoness obviously.

She then remembered she was asked a question.

"Oh, I saw you today, walking around the village." Korasi responded.

Rem stood still for a moment before facing the dragoness. "I can understand that, but I meant how did you recognize me through my spell? It completely changes my scale colour." said the male as he continued to feed his baby sister. Moving over to the nest, Rem curled up and allowed the young dragoness to lean against his leg and drink the milk. In all honesty, he had no clue what he was doing, just going off of what he had seen from other hatchling's mothers and hoping he was doing it right.

Korasi looked at him strangely; he did not seem to change in color at all. If he did cast a spell as he said, then the effects of the spell probably either worn off or she can see through the spell.

"I don't understand, you seem exactly the same, besides the bulk." Korasi responded confused.

Rem gave her a confused look and looked over his body. He still had his spell activated and he could clearly see red scales. His eyes grew wide at a possible explanation. "You wouldn't happen to be a fear dragon would you?" asked the fire dragon as he gave the female a questioning look.

"Of course I am" Korasi responded with a bit of curiosity. Did she not look like a fear dragon to him?

Rem's eyes grew even wider at the dragoness's statement. "But... but Phobius said that Crow and he are the last ones!"

"Well it must be the world's lucky day then." Korasi said smiling.

Rem looked out the balcony to see that the sun was already rising on the horizon, it's orange light stinging his eyes as it shone into the room. "Well it was nice to meet you, but I need to begin searching for some type of job before I end up on the street. I have more than one dragon to take care of now, one who was just born and one who is in critical medical condition." he said as he ushered the dragoness out. "And you might want to hide that again." he said as he tapped on her shoulder marking.

Korasi was rushed out the room. Whatever he was doing, it was probably urgent. He seemed to be surprised at the fact that she was an Eastern Dragon but that didn't stop him from closing the door behind her with a snap. "See you some other time then…" Korasi said to the doorway under her breath before walking away. It had been interesting talking to Rem for once instead of spying on him, and how long it had been since last she saw him. Some new things that she had been able to glean from their conversation were that he had clearly returned from Aeon, their hometown, with that hatchling. Korasi smiled slightly as she recalled the great Eastern city, she miss Aeon dearly, being able to watch the peasants from the hills of the dynasties, the homes of the wealthy families that ruled over country, but it was gone now, burned away.

Suddenly, Korasi stopped. "Wait a second…" she whispered in realization as the words of Rem replayed in her head.

_"So how did you escape Alto?"_

What did he mean by that? Alto had saved her from the fires, what did he mean by escape? Korasi frowned as she continued to walk down the hall and the wooden stairs. He must have been lying to cover his tracks Korasi decided. There was no way Alto could have destroyed the Aeon, and the East, he was the good guy here, after all. Korasi snorted, it had been foolish to even think that Rem had been telling the truth. She reached the bottom of the stairs and the eyes of the innkeeper watched her carefully, with suspicion as she headed towards the door, but Korasi merely smiled and reached for the handle. But upon opening the door, she found herself face to face with a towering Anthro, armoured and with a sword in hand.


	8. Chapter 8

Fall of the East: Chapter Eight

As soon as he saw her, he lifted his sword and pointed it towards her neck, while other guards carrying crossbows stood up on the roofs of the surrounding houses, and trained their weapons towards her.

"What is the meaning of this!" Korasi asked in surprise, wanting to take a step back from the sword but not daring to move while in the line of fire of the crossbows.

The guard growled and jerked a thumb over towards another guard standing nearby. " One of our recruits here reported you arrival to our village, but that's not all, he also noticed that you left some ink on his fur, and claims that you were using that substance to hide your true identity." He snarled and Korasi's eyes widened in shock as she recognized the guard from earlier…she had touched his shoulder, right after applying the ink to her mark! She quickly looked down to her shoulder and her heart almost stopped as she realized it was still visible. "Crap" Korasi muttered under her breath as the guard noticed it to and a snarl emitted from his throat "Easterling!" he hissed. Korasi took a step back but a hiss passed right by her face as one of the guards let loose an arrow that dug into the wall behind her, and she froze.

"Don't try to escape, I guarantee you won't live if you do." The wolf growled and beckoned to other guards with his hand to approach. Two more wolves entered the inn took their place on either side of her, their swords drawn and ready as they quickly apprehended Korasi.

Korasi didn't object as the guards chained her and led her away to what she presumed was their jail. The building was fairly small, with only two cells, each having a bed crude lavatory, and outside was just a simple desk with a crossbow on it. One of the wolves roughly pushed her inside after taking away her satchel and tossed it onto the desk after shutting the barred door and locking it. "Now let's go back and get the other one, that newcomer must be from the East as well!" insisted one of the other guards but the first snapped his jaws together "No! We need to guard her and wait for the re-enforcements from Warfang, I've already sent a messenger hawk to the city." He said firmly and crossed his arms, standing just outside Korasi's cell. "But think about the prestige we will receive if we apprehend both of the Easterling's they've been searching for!" offered the other and the first seemed to mull over this offer. "These cells are re-enforced with magic from the mages of Warfang themselves, she's not going anywhere" said another and the leader gave in with a nod. One of the wolves pumped his fist into the air and rushed outside, followed quickly by the rest. Before the leader left, however, he turned around at the door and glared inside Korasi's cell. "Now listen to me you Eastern rat! If you even try to escape, we will hunt you down and kill you before you can even make it back to your wasted country!" he snarled and slammed the door behind him.

Korasi grinned as the door shut, if they thought they could keep her locked up in here, they were wrong.

Tapping the walls, she examined her tiny cell for weaknesses, but didn't detect any of the spells they had been talking about before, perhaps they were lying? Korasi charged a lightning bolt within her maw and shot at the lock of the cell. It deflected and ricocheted off bouncing off another wall of bars and nearly hitting her just as she jumped away from her own incoming bolt.

"I guess not" Korasi muttered as she picked herself up from the straw covered ground. "Damn it, I need to get out of here…" she said quietly, knowing that Rem had to be warned. If he was captured, she wouldn't be able to fill out her masters wishes, and personally, she'd rather find out about Rem's powers first before those accursed wolves. With any luck he would rip them limb from limb! Getting up, the dragoness scouted around, looking for whatever might come in handy. She searched the crude lavatory which was a simple tin bucket, luckily, it was new and only had dust on it.

"Guess their usually isn't many visitors here" She thought to herself.

Korasi checked under the bed and noticed a chisel and a woodblock. She guessed it was to let the prisoners have something to do…and as he eyes slid from across the room she smiled. Quickly grabbing the chisel, the wood block and the tin bucket, she placed the chisel down as she began to stretch the bucket, her strength was no match for it as it quickly bent and snapped into two. She then bent the bucket further to make an arrow-like pan. She set it aside as she picked up the chisel and the woodblock and began to curve it into a stick, also indenting a thin groove in the middle of it. She attached the pan to the short stick and made a makeshift homemade shovel.

"It'll have to do I guess…" Korasi said and took the chisel once more and began to pry out one of the wooden planks on the floor below her. When the mages were casting their spells on this facility they were clearly thinking only about elemental powers, and not sheer force, as the plank broke away, revealing the space between the floor and the ground. Slipping through the hole, she quickly pulled the broken plank across the exit along with some straw, before crouching down and squeezing out into the street, luckily there were no guards waiting outside the prison.

"I bet they are waiting for him to leave the inn like they waited for me…" Korasi thought.

Going back inside, Korasi located her bag and reached inside for her claws, before swinging the satchel around her neck and heading back toward the inn. She reached it just in time to see the guards arresting Rem, who was struggling against the bonds they were trying to place on him. Korasi's eyes widened in shock and ran forward, slipping the metallic claws into place and leaping into the air with a vicious scream and sunk her talons into the nearest guard, who dropped dead to the ground.

Rem struggled against the guard's grip, punching and slashing out to force them back. When the dragoness from earlier returned and attacked the guards, the fire dragon nodded in thanks and bolted back inside the inn and rushed into his room. With his baby sister on his back, Rem allowed her to slide off into his satchel and broke through the window and flew almost straight up to exit the crossbow range. When they were high enough, Rem called down to the other eastern dragon.

"Korasi! Get out of there! Let's go!" with that, he began to wing his way over and out of the village, turning south towards the border. Only when he was a good few miles away from the village did he set down in a small clearing to wait for her.

The twins had remained on the street until Reya and Crow were no longer in sight, and even then, Lee was reluctant to move. Eventually though, with Ty's persistent nagging, Lee gave into his demands to go back to the flat. The place seemed rather empty without Crow or Reya around, but Ty told his brother to take heart in the fact. Crow was going to come home healed and they wouldn't have to worry about his health anymore. Things would finally get better for all of them. As Ty went off to bed, Lee remained by the window seat that looked down into the road below, watching as the townsfolk made their way home until all that remained were a few guards...Lee's eyes narrowed as he saw one leap up onto one of the rooftops and take point, towards the inn? His eyes widened in shock as another waited outside the entrance, their sword by their side. Stumbling through the darkness and into the room he shared with Ty, he practically fell on top of his brother, who snored and wacked him with his paw. Lee grimaced before cuffing him over the head "Wake up! Wake up you ninny!" he hissed. "Huh…wazzat? Ugh…Lee just take my shift for me today" he moaned but Lee grabbed him by the scruff and pulled him over to the window. "It's still night Ty, but look, there are guards set up around the Inn, that's where Rem is!" he said quietly, putting out the single candle that he had lit beside the window. Now fully awake, Ty's eyes widened in understanding. "We've got to warn him, before he's caught." said Lee, but Ty gave him a confused look. "Why? What do we owe him?" he asked and Lee paused, he had a point. "Well...it's what Crow would want. I would rather just tell him Rem had to leave fleeing the guards then tell him his friend from the East was dragged away to be executed." he said flatly and Ty nodded in agreement before the two quickly got dressed and rushed out the door, heading down the narrow wooden steps and out into the street below. It seemed they were already too late to warn him, however, for Rem had just broken out the window, sending glass flying everywhere, while the guards tumbled out after him and fell, howling, to the ground while he simply spread his wings and soared through the sky. "Korasi!" he shouted to the dragon that stood in the streets "Get out of there! Let's go!" and the twins looked at each other in confusion. Who was she? However, they didn't have time to ponder about it, because she was instantly attacked by the guards, and after a moments hesitation, Ty and Lee jumped into the fray, knocking them out in quick succession. "Come on, move it!" Ty hissed to the female, grabbing one of the guard's swords and leading her towards the village edge. Lee ran beside him in shock "What have we done?" he squeaked as he looked back to the guards that lay unconscious in the square behind them.

_Warfang_

Reya looked around nervously as she walked inside the bustling establishment, Crow still in her arms and immediately she was noticed by one of the nurses, who rushed up to her. "What happened to him?" asked the Anthro Fox curtly, her face half hidden by a scarf to protect her from sickness. "Blood poisoning, he's been suffering from it for quite some time now, the healer in Ridgewood said that he needed magic to cure him." explained Reya, anxiety high in her voice. The nurse nodded in understanding "I see, his vitals seem stable for the moment, which is good, but we don't have a healer here who deals with magic, you'll have to take him to the academy." she explained and quickly scrawled down something on a piece of parchment "give them this, they'll make sure he is looked after in their healing ward." Reya hesitantly took the paper but looked back at the nurse pleadingly. "Is there really no one that could cure him here?" she practically begged. The fox gave her an odd look but shook her head. "Our warlocks moved to the academy about a year ago to take up their profession there, they won't turn you away, don't worry." said the Fox kindly and Reya turned around and left the hospital in a daze. How could she possibly take him there! With a sense of foreboding, the dragoness turned around and walked back outside, heading towards the looming academy in the distance.

It was almost unfathomable to Reya...how she could walk through the city streets with a dying dragon in her arms, and no one noticed. No one even spared her a second glance, as the morning light glared down on the city, promising the day to be unbearably hot. Already, it was rather uncomfortable as the pair slowly made their way towards the academy, Crow leaning heavily on her shoulder as she guided him through the roads as the citizens pushed and shouted and rushed to wherever they were going. Beggars lay near the side of the road and Reya could hardly bear to look at them, fearing that one of them might be the younglings that had lived with them for a time, should she have come back and tried to save them? Could she still? No, not now anyways, she had made a promise to see Crow to safety not only to herself, but to the others as well. "Can I help you, Miss?" asked a Dragon and Reya blinked in surprise to find herself on the steps of the academy. "Yes, I…have a note from the hospital." she said, steading Crow as he stumbled slightly, his eyes were still glazed over, as if he couldn't see or hear what was going on around him. The dragon took the slip and skimmed it over, his eyes widening in shock as he read it through. "This way, hurry." he said and got to his feet, leading the way through the academy. Reya thought she saw Infurnus and ducked her head, trying to avoid attention. Soon enough, they reached the hospital ward and Crow was handed over to a healer, Reya held his hand tightly before he was taken away, and she prayed to whatever God there might be that she would see him again. "So, is he your brother or something?" asked the Dragon who had escorted them to the ward, and Reya shook her head. "He may as well be, but we aren't linked by blood." she explained and turned to leave, but then bit her lip. Where would she stay? The white scaled dragon seemed to read her thoughts and held out a paw. "Would you like to stay at my dorm while he's being healed? We have a spare room." he offered meekly, his eyes looking towards the ground. Reya glanced over and really looked at him this time. He was about her age, clearly one of the students studying at the academy, he was of a slim build, and had rather sharp features, and instead of horns, he sported a frill that made its way all the way down his neck to his tail, which ended in a sort of crescent shape. With a slight smile, the fire dragoness nodded. "Sure, I'm Reya." she said quietly, and the dragon looked up in surprise. "You will? Great! I mean-" he cleared his throat "I'm Viserys."

Reya's eyes widened slightly at the mention of his name. Viserys...it was familiar to her, one of the names given only to the high ranking families of the West, otherwise known as Dynasties. Her thoughts travelled back to her youth as the pair walked through the busy hallways of the academy, and she suddenly paused and looked over to him. "Are you of the Antilles Dynasty?" and Viserys smiled slightly and nodded. "Yes, I do belong to that family, but how did you know?" he asked, slightly confused, but Reya merely smiled back and continued walking. The white dragon remained still for a moment, puzzled before quickly catching up. "You are a strange one; tell me, where to you hail from. You must be from one of the Dynasties yourself, to so easily recall my house." he asked but the Dragoness shook her head. "No, I...don't belong to the dynasties. I just live in Ridgewood with a few of my friends, and I'm currently training to become a blacksmith, what, do I not look the part?" she said with a laugh as Viserys gave her a quizzical look. The male dragon quickly held up a paw "No that's not what I, I mean you do look the part, it's just uncommon to hear I suppose..." he rambled and Reya couldn't help smile as she listened to him. "And what about you? Studying to become a magician? A lord of your house?" she asked as they arrived at the dorm. The main room was lavishly decorated with drapes and carved tables, clearly meant for the upper class students. "My Father does expect me to take his place as head of household when I finish my studies..." he explained, but his eyes looked away as he said the words, as if they disappointed him. "But, you don't want to, do you?" asked Reya as they walked out onto the balcony together. Viserys shook his head "No, I want to be a healer. All my life, I wished to devote my time to helping others, but my Father and I don't see eye to eye. I'm an only child, he has no other heir to the Dynasty, and when my mother passed away, my fate was sealed. She agreed with my idea of travelling abroad and becoming a healer, which is mostly why my Father allowed me to study here, to honor her wish. But as far as my Father is concerned, after I compete my studies here, I must take his place...I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bore you with my dull story!" he said and leant against the brass banister of the balcony, a forlorn look on his face, but Reya shook her head and stood beside him. "No, I don't mind at all. In fact, I understand." "Forgive my misbelief, but I don't think you quite-"

"We were five, when we first met...you and me. I was only a girl, with no real knowledge of what the world was truly like, and yet, that was the day our parents arranged our wedding." she said quietly, her eyes faded as she looked off into the sunset and Viserys stood up, his eyes wide, as if he was seeing her for the first time.

"...Reya? It cannot be you...they said-"

"That I died? No...They were too ashamed to admit that I had run away from them. I wasn't even gone for two weeks, when they wrote me off as dead." She said bitterly, her heart heavy as she recalled her past. "They grieved for you...we all did." Viserys said quietly, his voice soft as he tried to comprehend what was happening. Reya looked glanced towards him before looking down at the railing, its deep caramel colour reflecting the setting sun in such a way that it almost appeared to glow. "I want you to know that I didn't run away because of you, because of us, although that was partially the reason...I didn't want them running my life. I felt...trapped, like I was trapped behind bars, screaming at the top of my lungs, but no one could hear me..." she whispered, her voice breaking. She had never spoken of this to anyone, not to Crow, not even the twins. Viserys was silent for a moment "Reya I..." His voice hung in the air, as if he wanted to say something important, but then he looked away I'm just glad you're alive." he said quietly and the Fire Dragoness looked back over the city. "Will you tell them? That I'm alive?" she asked but Viserys shook his head "I won't." he said softly, and Reya closed her eyes in thanks.

_Ridgewood_

"Korasi! Get out of there! Let's go!" Rem called from above as Korasi fought off the guards on the ground. Distracted by the dragon's shout, the wolves took their chance and pounced on her and Korasi cried out in surprise as she tried to fight back, but just before she was overwhelmed, the guards were pulled off and someone grabbed her forearm and she was pulled onto her feet.

A wolven face appeared before her as he yelled "Come on, Move it!" and began to pull towards the town gate. She noticed another Wolf kicking one of the guards aside and running alongside them. They definitely weren't guards, but they seemed to be just as well trained as them. For a split second, the dragoness thought about breaking free of the wolfs grip and just flying back to finish the guards off, but thought otherwise as she noticed one of the armoured wolves start slotting in bolts for their crossbow. _"Best to live to fight another day_" Korasi thought and she followed the two newcomers. As they rushed out of the village and into the forest, Korasi glared at the two wolves, who now that she could see them both clearly, looked almost identical.

"What did you guys do that for!" She growled at them "I could have taken care of it myself!"

"You can thank us later!" snapped Ty as they rushed into the forest, pulling the dragon along behind them. As soon as they reached a clearing, Lee dug his heals into the ground and threw out a hand. "Wait- someone's up ahead..." he whispered his green eyes glowing in the darkness, but he relaxed when Rem stepped into the clearing, "Oh, it's only you." he said and glanced back towards Ty, who was looking just as uncomfortable about their past actions as he was. Suddenly, his brother pulled out a long piece of white linin and quickly handed it to the black dragoness. "You should keep that mark covered, it could cost you your life here." he said in a hushed voice before walked over to Lee and speaking quietly to him. "What are we going to do now? We attacked the guards in the village, they'll never let us back without arresting us first!" he muttered and Lee nodded his head, a fierce frown etched on his face. "Who are you anyways? A friend of Rem's? You should have known better then to come here with that marking uncovered." he said indignantly, tapping his foot into the ground and crossing his arms.

"I would have, but the guard noticed it before I had a chance" Korasi replied half lying "And, I wouldn't say Rem and I are official friends, we just met."

"I see." said Lee shortly and turned towards Rem now, and noticed he was carrying an infant with him. "Who's that? Your kid?" he asked, rising an eyebrow as Ty looked nervously back towards Ridgewood. "We should move further in, it won't be long before they manage to regroup and send a search party after us. Since you are obviously new here - uh - new eastern dragon, you should probably know that your kind is not welcome in this country." He said with a slight frown.

Rem glowered down at the Anthro wolf, his eyes flashing white as his anger built. Calming himself with techniques that his mentor had taught him a while back, Rem's power slowly disappeared and the male let out a sigh. "She is my baby sister actually." he said in a matter of fact tone as he gathered a few soft fallen leaves from around the group and placing them over the items in his satchel, creating a small nest inside. Placing his sister in carefully, she popped her head out so that she could see everything around them. Hearing the calls in the distance, Rem shook his head and sighed, "Let's go before we are caught..."" he glanced at Korasi, "again."

"We'll come with you, are we heading back to Warfang to meet up with Crow?" asked Ty and took a step forward but was roughly pulled to a stop by Lee. "What do you think you're saying, we can't leave!" he insisted "Much less go with them!" he added, lowering his voice. Ty frowned and turned to face him. "We don't have a choice, we cannot go back to Ridgewood now, we should at least try to rendezvous with Reya and Crow, they could be in danger if word reaches the city before they have a chance to leave it!" he implored and Lee bit his lip. "Fine!" he muttered after a while and the twins stood side by side while glancing towards Rem.

Korasi watched the wolves argue from the sidelines as she thought about the current mess she was in. If only she hadn't gotten caught, perhaps she would have been able to finish her mission and go home, but now all of them were in trouble. She shook her head at the thought, there was no reason to be guilty about this! The misfortunes of these wolves and Rem were the least of her worries, all she needed was a way to extract that "white power" from Rem and give it to Alto. The only problem was she had no idea how to do it. If she just killed him, that power would be lost forever, plus, with these two wolves here, she felt uneasy about attacking Rem, as she did not know the extent of their capabilities. They obviously held no love for the Eastern Dragon, but Korasi wasn't one to take unnecessary risks. No…it was a better idea to just stay with them for now, and wait for the best opportunity to strike.

"I'm sorry about all of this." Korasi said suddenly, not actually sorry at all but intent on befriending the twins. She turned to the one that was appeared to be more aggressive and spoke to him directly "I didn't think I would get caught, and I apologise for dragging you two into this mess especially, and for yelling at you earlier. Thanks, by the way." She added with a slight smile, trying to put her charm to work. As the silence persisted, the dragoness decided to strike up some more conversation "I don't suppose you could tell me your names?" she asked to the wolves and glanced over towards the tiny dragon that Rem was carrying on his back. "I wouldn't mind knowing hers either" she added with a slight smile.

"Heh, and why should we tell you anything? Apparently, you aren't even friends with Rem, so we sacrificed our position in the village for nothing." snapped Lee, leaning against the trunk of a large pine, but Ty pushed him into a shrub with a sigh and stepped forward. "I'm Ty, and that talking bush is my twin brother, Lee." he said with a slight smile as the bush growled indignantly.

One of Korasi's eyelids twitched a little at Lee's rudeness, but calmed down as she figured his sour behaviour was understandable. Korasi smiled at Ty "Nice to meet you Ty, I'm Korasi." She looked at the bush and gave it a polite nod before looking to Rem. "So you're Rem? I finally know your name, are you going to name your sibling?" She asked gesturing slightly in the direction of his satchel.

Rem looked slightly confused for a few silent moments before answering. "I don't know... I have never really been good with names. Maybe Crystal. Yeah, I like that. It fits her well." he said as he looked to the sleeping hatchling in his satchel. "I just wish that we were not three of four eastern dragons left in the world... after what Alto did. The memories of the attack still haunt me. Sometimes it still baffles me that Crow and I were even able to escape the village at all..." the fire dragon trailed off for a few moments before sighing and looking around the clearing. "It would be almost impossible for Korasi and I to get into Warfang unnoticed, but maybe you two can sneak in and inform Reya of what happened." he suggested as he turned to the twins.

Ty frowned slightly as Lee extracted himself out of the shrub and dusted himself off. "Not a problem, we know that city like the back of our paws." he said confidently, but Ty stopped him. "Wait a moment, the guards saw us attack them, if word reaches Warfang before we do, everyone will be looking for us too. It might just be a better idea to wait until Crow and Reya return, we can simply sneak back into the village and leave them a note, and meet up with them somewhere safe." he said, speaking more to Lee than the others. His twin looked at him with a shocked expression "What? Just, leave them behind? No way! We've got to-" "Neither Reya nor Crow will be held responsible for our actions, sneaking into the city just to warn them of our faults would be bringing unnecessary attention onto them, something we cannot risk." said Ty calmly and Lee bit his lip in deliberation. "We could at least wait in the town for them to come home..." he muttered but Ty shook his head. "No, I'll go back and leave a note for them, then all of us should...well...where could we go?" he asked, looking towards the dragons for ideas while Lee quietly seethed in the shadows.

Rem looked around for any type of shelter nearby, but let out an annoyed growl as all he could see was trees, trees and more trees. "The only safe havens I know of where we could stay would be with the northern dragons or the southern. Both are of equal distance from where we stand, but the south has been known to ally with the western dragons..." mused Rem as he sat down and began to feed Crystal.

"Although both of are equal distance, we would have to trek through considerably more inhabited land if we decided to go North. The desert and jungle lie to the southern part of our country, leaving it mostly uninhabited, it would be easier to manoeuver un-noticed if we decided to go south...but leaving the West entirely? Has it really come to that? But if we did choose to leave the country, we would have to somewhere easy to find, somewhere Reya and Crow could meet with us, like one of the central cities." mused Ty as he sat down in the dewy grass, pulling out a few dandelions as he spoke.

"No, You are mistaken Rem. The southern countries have become independent with the western countries since they heard that violence has broken loose and destroyed most of the western capitol." Korasi explained and a sly smile crossed her face, perhaps she could tease them a little. "I heard this from travelling merchants but that's all they knew, Do any of you know what the causes were?" She asked looking around the group.

"No, we don't know anything." Said the twins at the same time as they exchanged uneasy glances. "Either way, we should just go South." added Ty, intent on getting away from the current topic, but Lee glared at him. "Wait, we have to leave that note for them, let me go back, it will only take a second!" he insisted and at length, Ty agreed. "We'll wait here for you, howl if there's trouble." he said, placing his paw affectionately on his brother's shoulder, but Lee just shrugged it off. "Don't worry, I'll be fine." he said and darted off into the woods.

Lee rushed through the dark pines, a dead branch cut his cheek in his haste but he barely noticed it, so determined to reach Ridgewood was he. As the wolf approached the city gate once more though, he paused at the edge of the forest. Near the gate, some sort of commotion was going on, his eyes narrowed as a large dragon surrounded by some sort of escort entered the town. Who were they? It was hard to tell in this darkness, even with his sharp eyesight. At length, Lee snarled and decided to enter the town anyways, it was probably just a traveller. Running across the short distance between the forest boarder and the town, the wolf pressed himself up against the wall, breathing rapidly as he glanced around for any sign of a guard. When he determined it was safe, he turned around and started scaling the wooden wall. Digging his claws into the soft bark, he easily ascended to the top and then dropped down onto a rooftop on the other side with a grin, it was just like the old days. Sneaking through Ridgewood, Lee slowly made his way towards the main street, where their flat was. He would have to use the back entrance, and then leave a note for them about where they were going to go, but silently cursed as he remembered they had only agreed on going south, and not an actual city. "Oh well, we'll probably just go to the capitol anyway.." he muttered quietly but froze in his tracks as he rounded a corner. The main street was swarming with guards and villager's, and many of the guards were heavily armoured, they were from Warfang! Had they really arrived so quickly? His eyes widened as he realized who the dragon from the caravan was...Reuel. The Guardian stood in the center of the crowd, talking to the citizens about the attack, glancing up towards their flat, Lee could easily tell that the guards were inside, ransacking the place no doubt. Their light was on, and shadows moved behind the twisted glass. Without drawing any attention to himself, Lee slowly backed up and disappeared into the shadows, before he started to run. Sprinting through the back ally of the town, he left the village the way he had entered and dashed into the forest. Breathing heavily he panted in exhaustion as he looked back towards the city. "That's it then...I can't get in...and those guards will be swarming the forest before long..." he muttered to himself. What could he do? Go back to the others? But he had to warn Crow and Reya, he could not allow them to stumble back into the trap set for them here. It was clear that Reuel would find out about them, he knew who Crow was, he would be able to guess that this was their home now. Lee slammed a paw into the tree nearby in frustration, Ty would never agree to let them all go to Warfang, and it was too risky for either Rem or Korasi anyways. But then...he didn't have to go with the others...he could go himself, and then lead Crow and Reya safely out of the City and towards the Southern border. Yes...that could work...but...Ty...Lee stood in the moonlight and gazed back towards where his brother was waiting for him. The two had never been apart for more than a day, they had always been together...it would hurt Ty a lot if he choose to go...but...it has to be done. "I'm sorry, brother." he said before throwing his head in the air and howling into the night. Shouts began to ring through the night and Lee knew it was time to go, without another glance back, he turned and started running through the woods once more, towards Warfang.


	9. Chapter 9

Fall of the East: Chapter Nine

_Warfang_

Reya ran as fast as she possibly could down the hallways of the arena, her breath sharp and her eyes focused as Vicerys ran beside her. At length, Reya couldn't take it anymore and spread her wings, completely disregarding the fact that it would draw more attention to her, despite the fact that the hallway was relatively empty. Candles lit the dark halls, casting a deep shadow on the wall wherever she flew, Viscerys close behind her. Cutting a close corner, the Fire Dragoness touched down and burst through the hospital doors to a shriek of fright from one of the healers, but paid her no mind and marched straight inside. "I want to see him, now." she insisted to the quavering Dragon, who meekly nodded and pointed towards one of the doors leading into the rooms at the back of the ward while stooping down to pick up the various objects that had fallen from her claws. Without another word, Reya strode past her while Vicery's gave the nurse an apologetic expression and quickly followed after her. Placing her paw on the heavy iron handle, Reya stared at the wooden door in front of her, and breathed deeply before smoothly pushing it open and going inside.

Beyond the door, lay a dimly lit room, with a bed and simple furnishings. Her eyes swept the room until she spotted Crow, who was standing in front of a desk staring at her with a shocked expression, before it broke into a grin and they both strode towards each other and pulled one another into a hug. "I thought that the treatment had failed, the way they were going on about it!" sobbed Reya in relief, practically choking Crow to death in her strong embrace. The young dragon gasped for air and started laughing as Reya let him go "A few more minutes of that and all their efforts would have gone to waste!" he joked and Reya gave him a look before helping him sit down. From his eyes and voice it was clear he had made a full recovery, but to Reya, Crow still seemed so frail and delicate, she wasn't about to let him have a relapse after all she had put him through. Vicerys stood politely at the door, waiting for her to introduce him, but cleared his throat after she failed to do so. "Oh, I forgot! Crow, this is Vicereys, we were friends, in my youth." she explained and Crow waved shyly towards him. "I suppose I'll leave you two alone, you probably want to catch up." he said after returning the gesture and turned to leave, but Reya stopped him. "Wait, you don't have to leave, I actually want to take Crow home now." she explained as she got to her feet. Vicerys looked back to her in surprise. "You can't be serious; he _just _got out of intensive treatment-"

"The longer we stay here, the more likely either of us will be recognized, it was a miracle the guardians have not noticed our presence up till now but I won't risk staying any longer than necessary." explained Reya in a quiet voice as Crow looked between them curiously, his calculating eyes gleaming in the candlelight. Vicerys bit his lip but at length gave in and the three of them left the wing. "You can lean on me if you aren't feeling well, alright?" offered Reya but Crow shook his head. "I'm fine, Reya, really!" he said, rolling his eyes slightly as the Dragoness continued to give him a concerned look. Soon, the trio reached the front entrance of the academy and walked down the steps together. "I guess this is where we part ways then..." said Vicerys quietly, a long coming sadness that he had kept hidden in his voice up until now finally breaking through. The last few days with Reya had been something out of a dream, and he had come to realize that he still loved her, after all this time, even after he was told she was dead. And it hurt him that she did not feel the same way, or was not willing to stay even a day longer at the academy, but he was glad they had been able to spend even a few days together, as friends. "Will you ever come back to Warfang?" he asked as Reya and Crow prepared for takeoff.

Reya looked towards the ground as Crow frantically beat his patched wings, testing out his strength. "I...don't know. I've made a home for myself in Ridgewood, but perhaps one day I will come and visit you...but no promises." she added, with a slight smile, which Viserys returned. "Then, farewell." he said and turned to leave, but stopped at the sound of shouts, echoing from the academy resounded through the night. "What on earth?" he whispered and his eyes widened in shock as he saw one of the guardians, along with a task force rush out towards them. "HIDE!" he hissed and pushed Reya and Crow out of the way, behind a large statue that stood to the side of the main entrance. Crow and Reya quickly curled into the shadows, Reya holding Crow tightly as the Guardian stepped into the light. "That's Reuel!" gasped Crow and Reya quickly covered his mouth, pressing a talon to her lips with her other hand as the Guardian started barking orders to the task force. "If they resist, kill them, those fools in Ridgewood thought that their prisons were enough to hold them, but clearly that is not the case. The messenger also informed me that the Easterlings were aided by Anthro's, if that turns out to be the case, they will be hunted down and put on trial, is that understood?" he snapped and the task force nodded before they took to the skies, their wings beating against the air as they flew across the city. The three behind the statue were silent for a long time, until at last Vicerys stepped out into the night and motioned for them to join them. "You were right, this city is not safe you must leave, immediately." he said and started walking down the rest of the stairs that lead into the city below. All around them, guards were begging to patrol the area and Reya made sure that Crow was right beside her, while the young dragon looked around nervously, his pale eyes wide with fear. "The Anthro's do you think they were talking about Ty and Lee?" he whispered and Reya shook her head "I don't know, maybe? What concerns me is that they said Easterlings, but only Rem was in Ridgewood, what if they know about you and I?" she whispered, more to herself than to Crow. "Where are you taking us?" she asked Vicerys as he flung out a wing in indication for them to stop. "You won't be able to leave the city by air, now that the city patrol is out looking for you, and you cannot return to Ridgewood."

"But it's our-" started Reya but Vicery's twirled around and looked at her fiercely. "Now you listen to me, Reya. They know you live there now, and are looking for your friends, any hopes of making a home for yourself there have gone to ashes. You need to go somewhere safe, I can get you out of the city, but you need to promise me you won't go back there...think of Crow's safety if not your own!" he pleaded and at last, after a long pause Reya nodded. "Good, now, follow me."

Lee ran faster than he ever thought he could, the pine trees seemed to blur together as he shot through the forest, the shouts of Ridgewood becoming fainter and fainter as he moved further into the woods. Although it had taken them a full day to reach the small town from the estate all those months ago, Lee managed to reach the burnt ruins in less than a few hours, and collapsed in the field in front of it, laying in the dewy grass as he tried to catch his breath. After a few minutes, he got back to his feet, and looked off into the distance, beyond the hills, Warfang was faintly visible. The lights of the city seemed oddly beautiful in the night, but its very form was rather foreboding.

It was strange, for so long, Lee had dreamed of going back to Warfang, but now he just wished to go back and join Ty and the others again. "No! They must be warned." he snarled and dug his claws into his palms until they bleed, before starting to run again. It wasn't an hour before the gates of the city came into view, his green eyes darted around the entrance, looking for a place to sneak in, guards were on full alert, and at least twenty of them stood by the gate, but they had left the rest of the wall relatively unprotected, slinking towards the sloppy stone construction, Lee quickly climbed the tall structure, stumbling only once when one of the stones fell out of place, but he managed to catch himself on a protruding beam. Gazing at the ground far below, the wolf managed to swing himself up onto the top of the wall, and skirt across it before jumping onto the city's side. He dug his claws into the stone and slid down until he landed on the ground and shot into the nearest alleyway. The smells and sights of the city all came rushing back to him, and he smiled slightly before disappearing into the shadows, heading straight for the Academy.

All around him, the city seemed to be in a state of panic._ "What is going on? Are they really this worried about the Eastern Dragons…all the way in Ridgewood?" _thought Lee as he hurried towards the Academy that loomed over the city, his eyes anxiously eyeing the structure as he thought about what condition Crow might be in, what if he and Reya had already been captured? No! He had to believe they were alright! With a low growl, he hoisted himself up onto the low rooftops and started jumping from house to house, making movement much easier. In the day, the clay and sometimes metal shingles that coated the city roofs would be burning hot, but at night, they were merely warm to the touch, which was lucky. At length, Lee arrived close to the Academy, and leapt down into the streets again before slinking towards the staircase, as he approached the stone steps he suddenly froze, and smelt the air. It was thick with the scents of the city, but he could still distinctively pick out the familiar scent of Reya and Crow, they had passed this way, not long ago. Turning abruptly around he began following their trail, it weaved and meandered its way through the city, until at last, he spotted them and he almost howled in joy.

"Reya! Crow!" he called and ran towards them. "Lee?" gasped Reya in shock and confusion, as Crow ran towards his friend and hugged him. "What are you doing here?" asked Crow, slightly concerned but overall glad to see one of the twins again. Lee smiled widely and hugged Crow back before letting go and looking over towards the dragoness. "Reya, Rem and another Dragon from the East were discovered in Ridgewood, we helped them escape, and now they know about our home. I came to tell you that Ty and the others have decided to go South...where exactly I do not know, but I'm pretty sure they meant the Capitol city." he explained, glancing towards the ground at the last bit. Reya took in the information quickly and frowned "What do you mean you don't know where? Didn't they tell you? That's kind of important if we ever want to meet up with them again, and after everything Rem has put us through, I'm not so keen to do so." she huffed and crossed her arms. Lee's eyes widened and he flailed about "But Ty is with them! We have to go South! And...well...I sorta came here without telling them..." he added and Reya glared at him.

"It's not like I had a choice! We were going to leave a note for you, but the guardian had already found our home, I couldn't risk it. At least this way you would be warned." he insisted and Reya sighed in frustration. "Argh, fine...well I'm glad you're here at least." she said and turned to Vicerys who nodded. "If you're going to the country to the south, I know just the people who can take you there." he said and the group started walking again, Reya beside Vicerys while Crow and Lee hung back slightly. "Who's the new guy?" asked the wolf quietly and Crow chuckled "Reya's boyfriend." he said and Lee grinned as Reya practically shot daggers with her eyes at the two of them. "This is Viscerys, he's going to help us escape from the city." she corrected and came to a halt as they entered the city market. Most of the shops were closed, but Vicery's led them straight towards a cluster of caravans. At the head of the column was a Lion, dressed in exotic clothing that was very different from the style of the West, coloured silk that was artistically embroidered. His physic was broad and his face stern and noble, but with a long scar ranging from the left of his forehead, across his nose and down to his right cheek.

He looked over from his work, which was sharpening a curved sword as Vicery's approached. "What business have you here, my lord?" he asked with a formal tilt of his head, but didn't get up. "You are the caravan from the South, are you not?" asked the dragon and the Lion flicked a dying ember that had fallen from the fire back into the blaze. "And what if we were?" he asked slyly, a smile coming over his face as Viscerys produced a small bag of gold. "I want you to escort my friends here to your country, do as I ask, and you'll receive double what is in here." he said and tossed the bag to the Lion, who caught it and examined its contents carefully before rising to his feet. "Done. But how will I be able to collect my reward?" he asked and Vicerys handed him a coin. "What's this for?" he asked in confusion as he examined it's intricacy. "Give this to any of the traders from my family in the south, and you'll get your reward." he said curtly "But you must leave tonight, they need to get out of the city." he said quietly looking around nervously as Reya, Crow and Lee stood behind him, Reya's wing placed over Crow protectively. The Lion smiled even wider. "Fugitives eh? Don't worry!" he laughed heartily and held up a huge paw "No questions need be answered here. You three! You'll be riding with Kiriko." the Lion said and gestured towards the last wagon, where a wolf, swathed in black cloth, waved. "We're packing up boys!" he continued to shout and leapt up into his wagon, hollering for the driver to get going. The camp was quickly in motion as all of the merchants started to gather their things and hitch the wagons onto the giant scorpions that pulled them. As soon as the first started rolling out, Crow and Lee were helped into the wagon by Kiriko, but Reya paused for a moment and turned to Vicerys. "I want to thank you, for everything you've done, we wouldn't have gotten out of here if not for you." she said but the white dragon shook his head. "Don't thank me yet, you haven't even made it out of the city." he said, his voice quiet. "I don't suppose we'll ever see one another agai-" Vicerys started to add but was cut off as Reya suddenly kissed him on the cheek. He blinked in surprise but before he could say anything she was gone, and the wagon was rolling away until it was out of sight.

_Ridgewood_

Ty paced impatiently back and forth across the small clearing, swatting away mosquitoes as they buzzed irritatingly around his ears. "He should have been back by now, what's taking so long?" he grumbled, his brother had always been the more rash of the two, and now Ty feared he had done something stupid and gotten himself caught...or worse. "I should have gone in his place." he thought to himself as he smacked another bug out of the air. Suddenly, a howl rang clearly through the forest, breaking the subtle silence that had grown between the three creatures as they waited for him to return. And Ty's heart plummeted. "It's Lee, he's in trouble we've got to save him!" he yelped and the wolf's blood almost turned to ice as he heard shouts in the distance. "The guards? But they can't be back on their feet already! What's going on?" he thought to himself as he started towards the village, determined to save Lee from whatever he had gotten himself into.

A small look of panic came over Rem's bodily expressions as he looked back in the general direction of the alert village. Lightly placing his newborn sister back into his satchel, the black scaled dragon took to the air and began to fly south. Hovering in mid-air, the fire dragon turned around and lit the forest behind his friends to buy them some time, "Come on! We have to get out of here before they find us!"

Korasi raised her head at Rem's orders. She had dozed off waiting for that angry wolf and Rem was sweeping his sister into a satchel. Korasi stood up when she noticed how urgent he was and looked in the general direction of the village. Guards, dragons in suited armor, were patrolling around.

"Elites." Korasi said angrily under her breath. This village must have a very fast messenger or a very strong communication spell to become into contact with Warfang if they have guards here. It only has been three or so hours since they have been caught. Whimpering and a subtle sounds came from Crystal, she was either hungry, really bored or just being very inconvenient.

"Elite guards of Warfang, I believe 'Ocelot' is part of their scout team." Korasi said "We need to move… Now!"

Ty turned around in shock as both Korasi and Rem started to leave, the black scaled dragon lighting a large section of the forest on fire as he did so. "What are you doing? We can't leave! Lee is still in there, he needs our help!" he said, his voice panicked and desperate.

"Trust me, He's not worth what we are going to be up against assuming we stay here. Live to fight another day" Korasi said, a little fear in her tone as she began to back up slowly "Trust me on this one" and she beckoned with her head to signal the wolf to get moving.

"You can't just expect me to leave behind the only family I have!" hissed the wolf, running into the trees, the heat of the fire singing his fur as it burned the woods nearby. With a growl, he leapt past the flames and tumbled out into the clearing before Ridgewood. Jumping to his feet, he twirled around looking for Lee, and instantly caught onto his brother's scent. He had been here, but where had he been taken? Strange...the trail seemed to lead away from the village...Ty's eyes widened in realization as his eyes followed the trail, it lead straight towards Warfang. So that was it then, Lee had gone on ahead to join the others in the city. He...had abandoned him...Ty stood still as the fire continued to surge closer and closer towards him, and the town that lay beyond.

The Elite guards were fighting against the inferno, but they moved steadily closer towards where the wolf was standing, any second now, they would round the wall and he would be spotted, but Ty made no move to hide, his eyes were blank and he didn't even flinch as the falling embers burnt into his fur. Just before the Elite arrived, a dark figure suddenly swooped down and grabbed onto him, dragging him out of the fire and back into the woods. It was Korasi. "What do you think you're doing? I thought I told you to run!" she said, dragging him through the forest. "He...he left me behind." Ty whispered, stumbling over the roots as the two hurried forwards. Suddenly, a roar sounded through the woods, Ty's scent had been caught. Korasi, her eyes wide with fear, turned around and grabbed onto his shoulders, before slapping him across the face. The wolf fell back with a howl, but Korasi pulled him back. "Snap out of it, we can't afford you to fall behind, let's go!" she snarled and Ty, gazing at her in shock, slowly nodded. "Good, now get moving!" she said and leapt into the air. After a seconds hesitation, Ty started running, his eyes glancing up towards the sky to keep tabs on the dragons position as roars continued to sound in the distance as Ridgewood was left behind, the forest around it ablaze.


	10. Chapter 10

Fall of the East: Chapter Ten

Ty ran for what seemed an eternity, weaving in and out of the trees as he desperately tried to keep up with the dragons that flew above, their black scales making it rather difficult to depict in the darkness. Whenever they reached some form of gorge or river, either Rem or Korasi would swoop down and give the Wolf a lift over the obstacle, before he was dropped and forced to run again. At length, Ty saw Rem point towards what looked like an outcropping of stones, piled haphazardly around a small hill, before making a beeline towards it, Korasi close behind him. Ty quickly changed directions and scaled the small hill, meeting the three just as they touched down. "Are we resting here?" asked the wolf, leaning against the stones and panting in exhaustion, he hadn't run this far before in his entire life, which was saying something as the Anthro would make trips across Warfang on a daily basis, during his years as a beggar.

Rem faced the Anthro with a tired smile and nodded, crawling into the outcropping and breathing a small stream of fire to make sure nothing was already living in the outcropping. Seeing it as uninhabited, the black scaled dragon made his way further into the small cave and began to stretch out in a corner, his exhausted wings limply hanging off of his sides as he collapsed to the ground, instantly falling into a deep, peaceful rest.

It had been a few minutes since Ty and Rem had entered the cave, and Korasi decided to stay outside to bathe in moonlight, leaning against the wall next to the entrance as she sharpened her custom made claws with a rock she had found nearby. Her mind was heavy with weary, so much had happened in the past few hours that had sent her calculated world into disarray, the possibility that Alto had somehow been involved with the destruction of the East, her sudden decision to join this rag-tag group and go South and most importantly…Ocelot. Korasi grimaced at the thought and chaffed the rock against the metal claws so hard that sparks flew up into the night sky.

That stupid northern dragon had always visited Korasi regularly since his village wasn't too far from Aeon. Ocelot always seemed to show more interest towards Korasi every time he saw her, despite the fact that she had made her feelings towards him very, very clear. She wanted nothing to do with him, but that never stopped him. Korasi tilted her head back against the rock wall and let out a depressed sigh.

"Aeon…" She said sadly. She had to admit she really did miss the Eastern city, just thinking about it made her heart ache with the fond memories she carried with her, the friends she had known, the places she had spent her childhood, why did it have to be destroyed? Korasi's head began to hurt due to fatigue and she tossed the rock away lazily and rolled onto her feet and entered the cavern, it wasn't very spacious but there was enough room to shelter the four of them. She laid down in the most solitude spot and rested her eyes and drifted off a soon after.

Korasi's dream came instantly; the first thing was Ocelot being the hardy dragon that knocked at her front door. Her father was always fond of him and thought he was quite well suited for Korasi. Her father looked at her and began talking but nothing could be heard and suddenly the atmosphere began to change and ripple as if something has been thrown into a lake and suddenly the visage of her father has turn into Alto's slightly disappointed and angry face.

"Korasi!" He yelled.

Korasi continued to stare at the image, this was definitely a lucid dream and she waited for something else to happen. Maybe something that will amuse her.

"Why are you staring at me like that?" Alto asked "Snap out of it!" And he lightly slapped her across the face.

"Ah! What the heck?" Korasi yelped rubbing her face. Though it didn't actually hurt, it felt real.

"About time you responded!" Alto said impatiently.

"Is this a dream?" Korasi asked in confusion.

"Of course, though I'm still talking to you through dreamscape." Alto explained.

Korasi's eyes blinked in disbelief "Ugh, I need to stop sleeping so late…" Korasi said sarcastically still not persuaded this was a 'dreamscape'' Alto slapped her again "No! Stop it. I'm talking to you through your dreams, it took me a very long time to find this spell and I have not fully mastered it yet, so listen up!" Korasi rubbed her face again, perhaps this was him talking to her through a dreamscape. He manages to pull of crazy spells anyways. "Where have you been? You have been gone for days! I've been worried." Alto asked "I need you to be here."

"I've gotten into contact with Rem. I'm secretly spying on them while we are travelling together." Korasi explained. "Hmm..." Alto hummed rubbing his chin "You managed to earn their trust?"

"No entirely, but I've managed join them in their journey south."

"Why?"

"I'm afraid the White Power will disappear if I just kill Rem, we also do not fully understand it, so I wish to study him and learn everything I can so that I can safely bring it to you."

"Hmm…that may be a wise decision." Alto said after a slight pause. "Yes.. You have made a good choice, but time is running out" he added, his voice serious. "You never told me why we were being so hasty for this-" Korasi began but Alto cut her off "Once we achieve the White Power, then you will see." Alto said vaguely and Korasi decided not to press the issue any further.

"Where are you headed, precisely?" Alto asked "South, somewhere, not sure yet. I'm assuming the Capitol." Korasi replied "Perfect, I will be making a visit there soon for an alliance and with you heading towards them with Rem... the job will be a lot easier." Alto said satisfied "Tell me, how many people are in your party?"

"Four, including me at the moment, they have other friends in Warfang who we might see again."

"Interesting… Anything interesting happening in Warfang lately?"

Korasi thought for a minute, then thought of Ocelot and she supressed another grimace. "..No... Nothing out of the ordinary besides they want Rem's head and his other eastern friend dead. I think they know about me too. "Alto nodded slightly, the nod someone would do when they understand a situation whilst thinking.

"Try not to get caught Korasi, I need you alive."

"Will do, I plan on staying alive." Korasi replied.

"I will be speaking to you in some of your dreams from now on Korasi, depends on when I need you the most. If you don't sleep I cannot speak to you. So make sure you rest every night. It's good for both of us." Alto said. Korasi bowed her head and looked back up. "What will you do now?" She asked. "I'm learning a spell that will bring us some more soldiers that will be under out command from a distant place..." He replied sounding rather suspicious. "But enough talk, I believe the new day will begin soon. It's strange how dreams seem to be a lot slower compared to reality." He said casually and he looked at Korasi in the eye "Expect me the next time you sleep, hopefully the scrying pool will tell me when you do. Stay. Alive." He said strictly.

The atmosphere began to fade into white and before Korasi knew it she was being hit in the face by flying shards as the landscape shattered like glass and she instantly woke up to see Crystal stepping on her face and playing with her snout as she giggled.

Rem sat quietly in a corner as he watched his sister play with the dragoness's nose. Sighing and chuckling to himself, the black scaled dragon stretched and picked his new born sister up and began to feed her. As he searched through his satchel, the male fire dragon growled slightly and looked out towards the entrance to the rocky outcropping. He was running low on food for his baby sister. Where ever they were heading, they needed to hurry or he would soon run out of food for his sister. Walking to the cave entrance, Rem handed the feeding Crystal to Korasi and turned around. "I am heading hunting. If you so much as harm one scale on her, it will be the end of you." He growled as he made his eyes flash white in emphasis before spreading his wings and scouting the area for any prey for the group.

Although he had practically passed out from exhaustion the night before, Ty hadn't managed to get much sleep, and he had been awake long before the others, sitting outside the cave and staring back across the forest, towards where he assumed Warfang was. Dreams of his brother's mangled body kept surfacing before his eyes, and Ty wrapped his paws around his knees, placing his forehead on them as he thought about his brother. It was hard to believe that he could miss someone so much, but he couldn't remember a single day when he hadn't seen Lee. With a quavering breath, Ty looked up as Rem left the cave and took off, whipping a tear from his bloodshot eyes as he tried to focus. He had to make it to the South, if Lee was alive, he would lead Reya and Crow there.

_The Saffron Road_

The Caravans got out of the city easily enough, at that time, most of the guards were rushing around in a panic, all of them sure that an attack from the Eastern dragons was imminent. They spared no time in checking a bunch of run down wagons, and let them pass without any hassle. The wagons travelled all night, and Reya, Crow and Lee stayed in the back of the last one, Reya holding onto Crow as he drifted off into a light sleep. "So, he made a full recovery then?" whispered Lee from the opposite side of the wagon as it trundled along, the scorpion that pulled it making odd hissing noises every so often. Reya nodded her head slightly and smiled down at the sleeping dragon. "Yes, the poison is no longer in his blood, and the wound has finally healed." she said with a slight smile, although it faded when her eyes fell upon the mark. It was no longer the symbol of the eastern dragons, but an array of white lines running from the base of his neck all over his shoulder, like a spider web. Lee sighed with relief and tilted his head back against the wooden wall, and pulled one of the large woven blankets towards him, before placing it over Reya, who gladly accepted the extra warmth. "Are you sure you don't need it?" she asked and the wolf smiled "I've already got a fur coat, remember?' he said quietly and Reya laughed lightly.

"How you ever managed to survive those summers in Warfang, I'll never know." and the two chuckled quietly as the wagon trundled on, before one by one, they too fell fast asleep. Lee was the first to wake the next morning, to the bright light of the sun. Careful not to wake the pair across from him, the wolf quietly made his way to the front of the caravan, and leaned out to get a better view. All around them where pine trees, and they lined the well-worn road that the caravan was taking. "How far are we from Warfang?" he asked, looking to the black swathed wolf, who didn't look at him. "Not far enough that you should be walking about in plain sight, my friend." he said with a chuckle and lightly flicked his whip, urging the scorpion, which had drifted to the side of the road, back on track. "Right." muttered Lee and let the curtain that separated the front from the main part of the wagon fall back in place as he moved back to Reya and Crow, who had both woken up by now, Crow yawning widely and looking around curiously as Reya blinked the sleep out of her eyes. "Where are we?" she asked with a yawn as Lee handed the two of them some bread. "Still in the forest of pines, but we're making good progress, it won't be long before the city is completely behind us, and we're out of the Guardian's reach." he said confidently and smiled as Crow scarfed down the bread. "Where is Ty?" he asked in confusion and Lee sighed "He's with Rem-" "Lee!" snapped Reya giving him a look as Crow practically choked on his breakfast "Rem? He's here!" he said with a shock and Lee silently cursed himself. "Yes, he came to visit you while you were at the healers in Ridgewood..." said Lee, his ears flattened as he avoided Crow's gaze.

"Why didn't either of you tell me he had come back?" demanded Crow, getting up and glaring down at the two of them. "Because of what he did to you!" said Reya, a fierce frown over her face "When he left you behind, you suffered for it, we could all tell, it was awful, seeing you in so much pain, I just didn't want to bring back bad memories" explained Reya and Crow sat back down, a low growl emitting from his throat. "You should have at least told me! Rem was the only family I had before I met you guys..." he said, his voice trailing off quietly and Lee placed a hand on the young dragons shoulder. "We're sorry alright, we just weren't sure how you would take the news." he said softly and Crow nodded slightly. "I guess this wouldn't be the best time to tell him that Rem has a sister..." thought Lee to himself as he looked over to Reya, whose face was lined with worry. "Keep it down back there!" muttered the wolf at the front and the three fell into a sullen silence as the caravan continued to travel south.

At length, the caravan came to a halt and the three looked up nervously, listening for any sign of trouble. But Kiriko simply pulled back the curtain and threw a bucket towards them, which Lee caught. "Hmm, good reflexes." muttered the wolf, his eyes glinting between the scarves that covered his face. "We've stopped to rest the Scorpions, don't be alarmed, take that and fetch some water for the beasts, they'll need lots before we enter the desert." he said and disappeared, letting the curtain fall back in place. "Well, it would be good to get out of this trap." muttered Reya and leapt out of the back, Crow and Lee following suite. The rest of the merchants were standing haphazardly around the caravans, which had been pulled to the side of the road, and a couple of them had lit a fire and were preparing a meal, while a few sat on top of the wagons, keeping a watchful eye. Kiriko, who was unharnessing the scorpions and picketing them in the forest so they could wander about a bit, gestured into the trees. "There should be a stream a ways in the woods, you there, young one, take the bucket and fill up our reserves, you two, help me lead the beasts so that they can drink." he ordered and Crow reluctantly took the bucket before dashing off into the forest. Lee took the reins of one of the scorpions, which clicked its pincers and started leading it into the woods, Reya walking beside him. "You know, these merchants, don't they seem a bit...suspicious? I mean, they seem too familiar with harbouring fugitives." he muttered as they arrived at the stream, the giant scorpions moving forward to drink. Reya frowned slightly and nodded "Perhaps, but I don't think we should go poking around, we need them on our side if we want to make it to the South." she said quietly.

Rem silently flew over the valleys and a small part of the forest to search for the ones after them. The warm air currents kept the teenaged dragon aloft as he spread his wings and slowly allowed the rising sun to warm his back scales. As he neared the edge of the forest, the black scaled dragon shot over the tree tops, clipping the tips with his legs every now and then as he skimmed above the treeline. A flash of scales caught the dragon's eye as he neared a rather large, rushing stream and as he turned his head, his eyes shot open in shock. "Crow?" said the male fire dragon with a confused tone before letting out a yelp of shock as a large tree seemed to appear in front of him, causing him to crash into it head on. Two legs shot out from either side of the trunk as the black dragon groaned and fell backwards to the forest floor, coughing and moaning in pain. "Where did that tree come from..?" muttered the teen as he tried to push himself to his paws, but found that he was not recovered enough and collapsed back to the ground.

The young dragon swung the bucket around haphazardly as he walked through the forest, his patched wings trailing behind him as he padded across the fallen pine needles. Birds sang in the distance, their calls echoing through the air as the young dragon arrived at the side of the stream. He placed the bucket down and lowered his head to drink before filling it, just before he turned around however, a sudden cry rung out through the forest, and the young dragon's white eyes widened in fear as he looked around for the source. The birds had fallen quiet, and the silence seemed to ring in Crows ears. He backed away slowly, his pupils dilated as shadows started to creep into his vision, monsters that slithered around the tree trunks and under the ground slunk towards him and he cried out in fear, turning around and running through the woods blindly until he hit something. With a scream he started hitting it but firm hands grabbed his paws and Crow opened his eyes to see Lee, looking down at him with concern.

"Crow? What is it, what's the matter?" asked the Anthro and Crow shook his head in confusion, looking behind him, the forest was empty. "They're...they're gone..." he whispered.

"Who's gone? What are you talking about?" "There was a cry in the forest...I…I got scared..." muttered the dragon and Lee glanced over at Reya who nodded and handed him the reigns to her scorpion before walking in the direction Crow had indicated. She arrived at the stream, but there was no sign of any trouble, however, her ears perked at the sound of a distant groan and she weaved her way through the trees towards it, until at last she spotted a figure in the distance, it was Rem. Her eyes widened in shock as she saw him on the ground, moving around in the ground in pain, from the looks of it, it seemed he was injured, possibly from a fall. For a moment, Reya stood still, should she approach him? He was the link back to Ty, the only missing member of their party that she actually cared about, but she loathed Rem above anyone else, and didn't want anything to do with him, or him to have anything to do with Crow, she remembered how angry the young dragon had gotten when he found out the secret she had kept from him however and bit her lip, but she was determined to keep the two apart. But as she took a step backwards, her paw snapped a twig and she cursed, looking back to the dragon that lay on the ground not a stone's throw away.

Rem's eyes snapped open at the sound of the snapping twig, and the forest seemed to fall silent as the black scaled dragon's icy blue eyes whipped around until his eyes fell upon the slender, shining red form of Reya. Struggling, the fire dragon pushed himself to his paws and sat down, dizziness taking over him for a few moments before he could stand and feel well enough to speak.

"R-Reya? What are you doing..?." started the fire dragon as a sudden realization from previous events. The fire dragoness hated him... and he knew it. Sighing, he averted his eyes and hung his head in slight defeat. "Where is Crow?" he asked in a more plain, emotionless voice. There was no point showing any emotion if he was talking to a dragon who hated his guts. All he wanted was to be with his closest friend once more and then he would be out of the dragoness's life. The dragon sighed as he imagined himself, Korasi, Crow and his sister all together in one area, all of the remaining Eastern dragons living together. That is all he wanted. He sat quietly, awaiting the response of the fire dragoness before him.

"…I don't know. We got separated when we were trying to escape the city." said Reya, her voice clear and quavering, lying was one of the things you picked up on fast when living as a city rat. Her eyes were cold and hard as she stared at Rem, his voice was flat and dull, but his eyes were determined.

Rem snarled a bit and walked up to the female, smoke shooting out of his nostrils as he did so in anger. "Do not lie to me, Reya!" he roared in her face. "I know you would have never left him back there, or left his side throughout the process. Now tell me... Where. Is. He?" Rem's eyes burned with his rage as he went nose to nose with the female. He was not going to be kept from his closest friend once again by her.

"What are you going to do Rem?" sneered Reya, her eyes cold and full of rage equal to match Rem's. "Kill me? Destroy this forest with your uncontrollable power? I don't know where Crow is, and even if I did, I wouldn't tell you. You've brought nothing but sorrow to that boy, and you don't deserve to ever see him again!" she hissed, flaring her wings in agitation as she held her ground, sparks jumping between her teeth as she snarled at the black scaled dragon.

Rem's eyes grew wide at the female's words and sat on his haunches as her words played over and over in his head, tears streaming from his eyes as he looked away from the female and as the stresses started to get to the teenaged dragon, he just broke down in front of her. He did not care if she saw him like this. Had he caused a lot of sorrow for Crow? He had never meant to... all he did was to try and make his friends life as best as he could and apparently all it did was hurt him? Sobbing the black dragon ran past the female through the forest until he came to the stream where he saw that last dragon he would think to see. Crow. As the words of the dragoness played through his mind once more, Rem sighed and tried to compose himself, although the tears still fell. "Reya is right..." he said plainly. "All I do IS cause you sorrow, and I don't deserve to see you. I am sorry." with that, he began to walk back towards the edge of the forest, now longer caring to fly or if he was caught. Was that all everyone thought about him? That he was just a nuisance? A liability? A piece of trash that should hide away? With those thoughts, the male slowly continued on.

As the dragon stumbled past her, Reya spun around and rushed after him. "Rem! Damn it get back here!" she yelled as she wove through the trees after his figure. He stopped at the edge of the stream, but before Reya could fully catch up with him, he suddenly turned around and disappeared though the trees. Skidding to a halt, Reya looked off in the direction he had left before turning around to see Crow, standing stock still, a look of utter surprise on his face. "Crow!" she cried as he tried to rush past her, but she held the young dragon firmly. "Let me go! Let me go!" he screamed but the Fire Dragoness held on to him tightly, before picking him up and carrying the young dragon back to the caravans. "Reya! Please!" he begged, tears streaming from his eyes "Rem! REM!" he screamed but Reya would not yield and eventually, Crow's screams broke down into sobs as the dragoness jumped back into the wagon, holding him close as he cried. Lee watched the both from the front of the wagon as it started moving again down the trail. "I'm sorry, Crow." she whispered and shut her eyes as Crow continued to weep in her arms. "But it was just another one of your illusions, nothing more. There was nothing there." she whispered into his ear.

Hearing Crow's voice screaming out in pain behind him, Rem stopped in his tracks and gritted his teeth together, how could he let Reya, of all dragons, try to keep them apart when he clearly wanted to see him? Despite his better judgment, the young male turned around and started running back through the woods, his breath becoming ragged and panicked as he leapt over the stream. He couldn't hear him anymore, where had they gone? Suddenly, he stumbled onto a large road and looked to his right to see it a long line of caravans moving slowly away. "Crow…wait! Stop!" he called out and started rushing after them, but before he could take a step further however, the Lion Anthro appeared behind him and snapped his fingers.

Instantly, the dragon was ambushed, knives and ropes twirled around him until Rem was bound tightly and forced to the ground, the Lion waved the caravans on to continue and the assassins carried on without the slightest inclination that anything out of the ordinary had happened. "Sorry, boy, but I've been paid to get these three beyond the boarder, and I intend to receive my reward." he said before punching the dragon out cold. Whipping his paws clean he pushed the dragons bound body off the edge of the road before running to catch up with the caravans and leaping onto the side of the last one. "Get these three into my wagon, now." he muttered to Kiriko, and the wolf nodded curtly before handing his leader the reigns and disappearing inside the wagon. Reya and Lee looked at him in fear as the wolf approached, they had seen it all. But he held up his paws "Do not fear, we are tasked with protecting you." he said smoothly "What happened out there? You aren't merchants are you! Tell us the truth!" demanded Lee, his paws clenched together tightly. Kiriko laughed quietly and sat back onto one of the large pillows. "No, we are not. We are assassins." he said simply and Lee blinked in surprise. "Was that display outside the wagon not proof enough?" asked the wolf, his eyes crinkling at the edges to indicate a smile and Lee and Reya exchanged unsure glances.

"Well...why are you pretending to be merchants? Why didn't you just tell Vicery's that you weren't who he thought you were?" asked Reya and Kiriko chuckled "He knew who we were, make no mistake about that. That lord wanted you protected, so he paid us handsomely to get all of you beyond the boarder, that coin he handed us, it is worth a large fortune." he said and Reya shook her head in disbelief, she should have known it. "Our company was discovered and our hideout compromised, so we are moving our main forces out of the country to start fresh. Your friend must have been very well informed." added Kiriko before getting to his feet. "Come, we need to move you, our best assassins are travelling with us, but it's best that your exact location remain unknown." he said and as the wagons came to a sudden halt, he led them outside and up to the front, where the Lion was waiting for them.

"About time, did you tell them your life story Kiriko?" asked the Lion before the setting the caravan back in motion. Crow was still in a lifeless state and Reya gently lay him down on one of the large cushions that decorated the huge wagon. Various weapons hung from the wall and Reya admired the craftsmanship as Lee and Kiriko settled down beside her. Outside, the forest had finally given way to a sparse plain of grass that hissed quietly as the wind blew through it. "Those techniques you used, I've never seen anyone fight like that before." said Lee to the other wolf, and Reya nodded in agreement. "We've learned how to fight against all manner of creatures, it doesn't matter how much power they possess, we still find ways to take them down." said Kiriko with a shrug and Lee leaned forward in excitement. "I don't suppose, you could teach us to fight like that?" asked the young wolf and Kiriko raised a brow in consideration. "So, you want become an assassin do you?" asked the Lion as he suddenly entered, taking a swig of wine from his flask as he sat down beside him, another Anthro taking his place at the reigns. Both Reya and Lee nodded in unison. "At least train us to fight like that." implored Lee and the Lion smiled lazily as he lay across the wagon floor. "So be it, we'll start training you tomorrow and see how you fare." said the Anthro with a grin. "My names Tavoh, by the way." he added before rolling over and falling asleep.


	11. Chapter 11

Fall of the East: Chapter Eleven

Rem lay there on the side of the road for hours on end, tears streaming from his eyes as he watched the caravans disappear into the distance, and his chances of talking to his friend. The male shook as he scared off a raven that started to peck at him until he finally decided to cut himself free and walked along the path for a while before taking to the sky and flying over the group of caravans for a long while every now and then diving down and trying to contact his friend until one assassin fired a crossbow at him and forced the black dragon away. It took longer than expected, but at last he managed to find the outcropping and touched down before entering the small cave and curling up in a corner. Looking up at Ty, the male snarled and placed his head down. "You must think I am hopeless and useless too... everyone else in your little group does." he pretty much spat at the Anthro, his blue eyes glowing in the fading light, slivers of blue as they glared through the darkness.

Korasi looked up as Rem stormed inside and exchanged confused looks with Ty at his harsh words. Crystal, who had been waiting for Rem to return all morning, seemed hurt and scared by her brother's icy demeanour, and Korasi was quick to pick her up and hold her gently to stop her from crying. _"You owe me one Rem..."_ Korasi thought, as Crystal tried to crawl onto the top of her head. It was hard to believe that she was still travelling with the dragon, much less playing with his baby sister, but oddly enough it felt nice to be travelling with them.

Crystal laughed and wriggled out of her grip, almost falling to the ground but Korasi caught her with steady hands, she was worried for the youngster, despite her better judgment. Could Rem really take care of this tiny creature on his own? Not to mention they had to get moving soon, and would Crystal be able to handle all of the travel? She shook her head, why was she even thinking about this? Looking back to Rem, Korasi saw that he was still whimpering quietly in the corner of the dark cave, what had happened to him out there? Well, at least he was calming down, but she wished he would just get up and start moving, how could this wreck of a dragon possess so much power anyways? She thought as her mind drifted back to the problem of the elite squad. That fire Rem had started last night would not hold them off forever; they couldn't remain here much longer.

She winced slightly as Crystal cried out, the child must be hungry, and a twinge shot through Korasi's stomach as she remembered she hadn't eaten herself in a day or so. She had received training for such occasions and could go without food for quite some time, but Crystal was a different manner, and Rem certainty wasn't about to go off hunting. With a sigh, she got to her feet and wandered over towards Ty, who had moved out of the cave and was sitting on one of the stones, watching the forest carefully with his golden eyes while he clutched onto the sword he had taken from the guard in Ridgewood.

"You have some skill with the blade?" she asked curiously and Ty looked up to her before glancing back at the sword. "Oh, no, I don't. I didn't even realize I still had it until this morning, but I don't think I'll keep it, it's too heavy" he muttered and looked at the weapon with a peculiar expression, was it anger? Korasi couldn't tell.

"Hmm…I see. Well, the child is getting hungry, Rem didn't bring any food back so I'll go in his stead, could you watch her?" she asked, raising her voice slightly as she glanced at the dark dragon, her voice slightly annoyed. He didn't move, but she was sure he heard her. Ty nodded and Reya dropped the kid into his lap, and the wolf was quick to toss away the sword before Crystal could grab onto it and hurt herself. Korasi sighed and took to the sky, flying off while Ty kept the tiny dragoness out of trouble, despite her attempts to scamper off.

As the black scaled dragon began to calm down, he looked around the small, cramped cave to see Crystal lying quietly in the wolfs lap. Collecting himself, the fire dragon slowly stood on his four paws and walked over to them. Nodding in thanks to Ty, Rem carefully picked up his young sister and walked back over to the other side of the room and held her in his front paws as he curled up, his head still facing the Anthro. "Don't worry. They are all alive and well. Your brother, Crow and that useless piece of trash Reya." informed the black fire dragon, muttering the part about Reya more to himself than anyone else. "I ran into them in the forest but before I could tell them anything about where we were, Reya shooed me away and said that I don't deserve to ever see my closest friend again."

Ty jumped to his feet and leapt off the rock, his face twisted into a snarl "You're lying! Reya would never do something like that, she wouldn't keep us apart..." he said, his voice trailing off as a terrible thought came into his head. Would she? Ty knew how much Reya loathed Rem, particularly after what he had put Crow through during the month they spent in Ridgewood, but would she really pass up the chance to bring the family back together? Ty couldn't stand the thought and got to his feet abruptly, dragging his claws against the stone before he stormed away, if he had just run into them, perhaps the wolf would have the same luck, and Ty started walking haphazardly through the surrounding forest, half-heartedly searching for his lost family.

_Linwood Forest_

Ocelot flew over the forest alongside his second in command, Pyre-Valor as they searched for the Eastern Dragons that had escaped from Ridgewood and set ablaze the surrounding forest. His team had spent the entire night protecting the village from the inferno that had threatened to burn down Ridgewood and the rest of Linwood Forest, but luckily, with the help of Valor, they had managed to douse the flames and get back to their primary mission. The handsome male now soared through the air, his brownish gold scales sported jet black markings that ran down the length of his neck and then fanned across his body. His build was strong and agile, and being near-adulthood, he was a fair bit larger than Rem, although still not quite as large as one of the Elders. Two, gleaming, curved horns crowned his head, while two smaller spikes jutted straight out beneath them. His wings and tail had been customized with metallic extensions to improve his speed and agility in the air, making him and Valour the two fastest members of the elite squadron.

Although young to be the captain of such a prestigious team, Ocelot had worked hard to earn the title. He has joined the Warfang's Combat Service when he was of age, wanting to protect the friend from Aeon he admired and loved so much, and after her death, and the destruction of the city he had grown to love, along with the fall of the East, he had fought harder to avenge her. That is when he applied to be the leader of Warfang's Elite Squad several months ago and turned out to be the most capable warrior they had ever seen. He was the best at stealth, with a good balance of hand to hand combat and long range weaponry and elemental skill.

That is when he first met Pyre, one of the few Pheonix's left in the world. He skin was covered in vibrant coloured feathers of brilliant red, orange and yellow, and she had a long, dark red mane that flowed all the way down her back. Her wings sprouted out behind her shoulder blades, and her arms ended in taloned hands, the same as her feet. Her face was flat with pure black eyes, a sharp nose and pointed teeth behind a full set of lips. She was a beautiful creature, and her very being seemed to glow with an mystic light, which was hidden only by her clothing, which was a long cloak and flame resistant armour, anything else would burn away at her touch. Strapped firmly across her back was a long, twisted staff, which Ocelot had seen her use time and time again. She was a creature of magic, and likewise used her mystical power to summon infernos stronger than any Fire Dragons flames. Together, Pyre and Ocelot made the perfect team, and now, they flew across the plains with agility and ease, scanning the forest for any sign of movement. After flying for a while, Pyre-Valor began a brief conversation with Ocelot.

"What did you assign Peacewalker to do?" She asked.

"I told him to get back to Warfang, brief the guardians on what has happened, they will send us news feeds from the transmission crystal, mine still needs to recharge though." Ocelot answered. "Next time, wake up earlier so I don't need to repeat myself."

"Hm. Sorry." Pyre-Valor replied sarcastically, but with a slight smile that turned into a shocked expression as she flared her wings and stopped mid-air.

"Wait!" She ordered and Odin banked to the side, careening back around to circle her.

"What is it?" he asked, his eyes alert.

Her black eyes scanned the forest below, until she spotted a path in the forest, the Saffron Road. "The one who lit the fire near Ridgewood…he was here" she said, looking over towards Ocelot.

"Let's get a move on then…" he replied and flew after Valor who dived down into the forest and weaved her way through the trees.

"He's lying...of course Reya wouldn't...just being stupid..." Ty muttered to himself as he strode through the forest, making his way further and further from the cave, his golden eyes scanning the woods for any sign of his brother and friends. The Anthro wolf's paws padded quietly over the dead needles that lay on the ground, and his paws brushed gently against the lower branches as he moved them aside. This forest seemed hopelessly large; there was no way he would find them out here, even if Rem had just moments ago. "Or so he says." snarled Ty, dragging his claws through a tree trunk in anger, but ending up with his fur coated in sap. Cursing, he tried to wipe the sticky mess away on his tunic but fell silent at the sound of voices, snapping his head around, he looked up into the air and spotted two figures in the distance, one looked like a dragon, but the other...he had no idea what it was. "Some new devilry from the Guardians no doubt." he hissed and started walking backwards carefully through the trees until they were out of sight, then turning around and rushing back towards the cave. With any luck, Korasi would have returned by now and they could leave as soon as he returned. The cave lay mere meters away and he scaled the hill quickly and slipped inside. Rem was still sitting with Crystal and the tiny dragon looked up in surprise as Ty approached them, his eyes wide with concern. "We've got to get moving, I think someone's picked up our trail, where is Korasi?"

Rem looked up in confusion as the Anthro walked back into the cave and warned him. Placing his sister into his bag, the black scaled fire dragon lightly handed the wolf his bag after licking the top of his sister's head "I need you to take her south towards the next mountain range. I will go and look for Korasi and meet up with you there." said the male black dragon with a serious expression. "Keep an eye out for Reya and their caravans. They were heading south as well when they prevented me from seeing Rem. I will try and find Korasi as quick as possible so that we can catch up to your friend's caravans and meet up." said the male before spreading hi leathery wings and flying out of the small cave in search of the other eastern dragoness

Ty, although hesitant about what was left of the group splitting up, took the bag and gently placed it around his shoulders before nodding towards Rem as he took off into the air. Leaving the cave, he glanced towards the distant mountain range and sighed "I hope you don't mind running kid." he said to Crystal before taking off, his feet carrying the wolf swiftly through the forest while the tiny dragon poked her head out of the bag and looked around with curiosity at the trees that flashed past. Ty kept his eyes peeled for the supposed Caravan, but in this thick forest, he knew they would never pass through here, no...they would go down the main roads through the dry fields that led to the desert. It suddenly became much darker and Ty looked around in confusion until he realized he had just entered the shadow of the mountains. Skidding to a halt, the wolf looked back over his shoulder to see if the others were following, but the sky was clear. Crystal babbled away happily and Ty couldn't help but grin as he turned back and started to scale the cliffs, his sharp talons gripping the jagged rocks as the accent became more and more treacherous, but he knew he had to reach high ground so the others could find him. At one point, he slipped on the loose gravel and hit the ground hard, his paws reaching out frantically to grab the nearest ledge before he went tumbling down to his demise. As he pulled himself up, Crystal suddenly started babbling loudly and pointing into the distance. He raised a brow and looked off into the distance, expecting to see Rem and Korasi, but instead, he spotted the edge of the forest, far away, at what appeared to be a large caravan, travelling down the main road. The distance was so great that the wagons looked like chips of wood, and the giant scorpions that were pulling them, mere ants. Heaving himself up onto the ledge, Ty stared out into the distance, it had to be them! He was about to leap back down when he suddenly froze. He couldn't leave now, not without taking Crystal with him, and he certainly just couldn't leave her here alone to fend for herself, Rem and Korasi might never find her. He snarled and slammed his paw down into the rock. If he left right now, he might just catch it, but from this distance, the Caravan was at least a day's run away, and already they were disappearing from sight! But he couldn't leave, not now. "I'm sorry Lee." he muttered and turned around before he started climbing again.

Korasi snuck up on a boar who was drinking from a lake, as soon as she was close enough to the creature she violently lunged for the throat and slashed at it once, killing the boar instantly. The warmer climate of the southern side of the forest showed more signs of wildlife so heading south was a smart move. She began to cut the boar and removed only the best pieces leaving a bloody mess and stain on the nearby grass and trees. When she was finished gutting the scent of blood was strong causing her to receive a headache. Korasi decided to take a drink from the lake as well as wash the blood from her paws and the chunks of meat. She lowered her head to take a gulp, as soon as she began her senses were itching. Someone was nearby.

Korasi spun around and saw that something has ducked behind a tree and leaves of another nearby tree shook unnaturally; confirming that there was someone there, maybe two.

"Who's there?" Korasi shouted into the direction of the movement slowly dropping into a combat stance. It could be other creatures who scent the raw meat and just wanted the meal. There was no response from the trees. Korasi stared in the general direction; a passive animal would never react so quickly when she looked. It had to be a creature of intelligence, therefore it can be tricked.

She looked back to the lake and pretended to take a sip of water, she heard a mechanical click of a metal spring and she quickly rolled to the side and back. The first thing she saw was a dusty yellow color at the treeline but her eyes direction changed and looked into the sky as a creature landed on top of her. Korasi jumped back a little but her reflexes were not fast enough and the creature who was camouflaged by the brightness of the sun and sky landed on top of her. The impact sent her hitting the ground on her back. The contact with the creature burned, it felt really warm, nearly like pressure being applied to a sunburn. Korasi grimaced at the slight pain and endured it, she mustered strength to whip her tail from underneath the creature and hit it on its legs and quickly following it with a head-butt forcing the creature to get off of her. She stood up and her eyes quickly adjusted, stings of the sunburn feeling turned into needles and quickly vanished. She saw the creature that she knocked down.

Korari's eyes widened at the creature, it was something she has never seen before, at least not in real life.

"A Phoenix!" she gasped, and clenched her teeth as she realized the Phoenix was wearing the insignia of the Elite Squadron, which could only mean one thing..

"Freeze!" a familiar male voice ordered. "We finally got you now… Oh… Look who it is…" The voice said ending with interest.

Korasi cursed in her thoughts and with reluctance she turned around. Ocelot was pointing a crossbow that was attached to his forearm directly at her, a smile on his face.

"Ocelot." Korasi said as casual as possible.

"I did not expect to see you here." Ocelot said lowering his foreleg.

"Neither did I." Korasi said flatly.

The female phoenix got up, and dusted herself and rubbing her chin a bit. "Friend of yours?" She asked. "Yes! She is a friend of mine!" Ocelot said with forced enthusiasm. The same enthusiasm that Korasi hated since she met Ocelot. He looked at Korasi. "Korasi, meet my second in command; Pyre-Valor." He looked at the Phoenix "Pyre-Valor, meet my old time friend: Korasi." The two females just simply stared at one another. Ocelot looked back and forth to the two females. "Well! Guess that's that for introductions." Ocelot began to move, Korasi turned her body to speak to Ocelot but in her surprise, he brought his tail blade up to her throat. Korasi froze and looked at him with her eyes instead. The male shook his head "I never told you to move." He lowered his tail blade and Valor took a staff from behind her cloak and at the sound of a short incantation, the head alighted in flames. Korasi breathed heavily as she waited to see what happens next. Ocelot walked to the boars carcass. "Hunting I see." he says as he kicked the carcass gently.

He looked at Korasi, "How have you been?" Ocelot asked her.

"Get to the point." Korasi growled.

"Looks like you have not changed at all." Ocelot said.

"Don't be too sure." Korasi quickly responded "Again. Get to the point."

Ocelot nodded and looked to the ground "If you have not heard, which I doubt, your beloved Eastern Region has been decimated. And there just so happens to be two Male Eastern Dragons to hang around Warfang a for a few months a while ago." He began, he also emphasized 'Male.'

"Of course, the Males have fled when they were to be executed for their ethnicity." He said coldly "And you are not a male Eastern Dragon."

"Surprise!" Korasi said sarcastically.

Pyre-Valor let out a chuckle in the background.

"And as of yesterday, a Female Eastern Dragon was reported to cause discord in the town of Ridgewood north of here as well as responsible of a forest fire last night." He explained.

"...And as the leader of the Warfang Elite Squadron, my squad and I are to track these three Eastern Dragons and bring them either dead or alive…" He concluded, and walked up to Korasi with a forced miserable expression.

"It's a shame that I have no idea about this Ridgewood incident." Korasi muttered, not looking at him. "Shame indeed." He responded flatly, and looked at Pyre-Valor and gave her a nod. The flakes of fire from her staff intensified and a fire orb at its head.

"Remember when we were young, and at the annual festival four years ago… I asked you dance with me?" Ocelot asked.

"I do, I immediately rejected you." Korasi responded

"Then I said I will catch you some day and you will let me dance with you"

"That you did."

"And here we are." Ocelot said "I have to bring you in even if you are the love of my life, I rather bring you in alive and attempt to make arrangements to omit your execution."

"So you're saying I'm responsible for the Ridgewood incident?" Korasi asked though she knew she was part of it.

"Who else would it be?"

Korasi glared at Ocelot coldly and his dull eyes stared back. "I don't want to kill you." He said quietly, but Korasi shoved him away and Pyre-Valor took aim, but before she could fire Ocelot raised a wing to tell her to stop "No, wait!" he ordered.

"You know what Ocelot? You may have caught me here, but I'm willing to fight to survive this. I don't care if you will try to omit my execution if you do bring me to Warfang, if they send the Elite Squad to find the Eastern Dragons, they will not have mercy on me. So today you will fulfill your wish that you said four years ago" Korasi hissed while Ocelot straightened his stance and he stared at Korasi with a deadly seriousness. He looked at Pyre-Valor and nodded for her to stand back as Korasi strapped on her claws, electricity jumping between the metal talons.

"Let's dance!"


End file.
